Gerard Fairtlough (5 September 1930 – 15 December 2007) was an English author, speaker and management thinker. Born on

Hayling Island Hayling Island is an island off the south coast of England, in the borough of Havant in the county of Hampshire, east of Portsmouth. History An Iron Age shrine in the north of Hayling Island was later developed into a Roman temple in the 1st c ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, Fairtlough trained initially as a biochemist at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

. He worked for 25 years in the

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...

group, where he spent the last 5 years as

Chief Executive A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Shell Chemicals Shell Chemicals is the petrochemicals arm of Shell plc. The name "Shell Chemicals" refers to the nearly seventy companies engaged in chemicals businesses for Shell, which together make up one of the largest petrochemical producers in the world. T ...

UK. In 1980 he founded the

biopharmaceutical A biopharmaceutical, also known as a biological medical product, or biologic, is any pharmaceutical drug product manufactured in, extracted from, or semisynthesized from biological sources. Different from totally synthesized pharmaceuticals, t ...

s firm

Celltech Celltech Group plc was a leading British-based biotechnology business based in Slough. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History Celltech was founded by Gerard Fairtlough in 1980 with fina ...

and remained its chief executive until 1990. He subsequently founded the publishing company Triarchy Press and was involved in the formation of a number of high-tech businesses. Fairtlough served as an advisor to several UK government and academic institutions. He was Specialist Advisor to the British House of Commons Select committee on Science and Technology, Chair of the Advisory Panel on

Science Policy Research Unit Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) is a research centre based at University of Sussex in Falmer, near Brighton, UK. It focuses on long term transformative change, science policy and innovation across different sectors, societies and structure ...

at the

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

, and a member of the UK Science and Engineering Council. Gerard Fairtlough developed and elaborated his theory of triarchy and was the author of ''The Three Ways of Getting Things Done: Hierarchy, Heterarchy & Responsible Autonomy in Organisations'', ''Creative Compartments: A Design for Future Organisation'', and co-author with Julie Allan and Barbara Heinzen of ''The Power of the Tale: Using Narratives for Organisational Success''. He also wrote extensively on the theory and practice of organization design and management and of innovation. In 1954 Fairtlough married Lisa Betambeau (they had two sons and two daughters); he died in

Ryall, Dorset Ryall is a small village in the county of Dorset, on the south coast of Great Britain. It is situated roughly midway between the towns of Bridport and Lyme Regis, with the county town of Dorchester about 20 miles to the east. The village lies o ...

on 15 December 2007. He also has six grandchildren: Zoe, Tanya, Aurora, Zachery, Sorrel, Bidwell.

References

''Independent'' obituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairtlough, Gerard Alumni of the University of Cambridge British biochemists English chief executives British non-fiction writers 1930 births 2007 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire British male writers 20th-century non-fiction writers 20th-century English businesspeople Male non-fiction writers