Nigel Vinson, Baron Vinson

Nigel Vinson, Baron Vinson

Nigel Vinson, Baron Vinson, LVO (born 27 January 1931) is a British businessman/inventor.

Vinson, the son of a farmer (Ronald), was educated at the Nautical College in Pangbourne. He served in the Queen's Royal Regiment from 1948 to 1950, reaching the rank of Lieutenant.

In 1952 he started up a small plastics company in Guildford and subsequently floated in 1969 with over 1000 employees winning the Queens Award for Industry in 1971. He was Deputy Chairman CBI Smaller Firms Council 1979 to 1984. President Industrial Participation Assoc. 1979 to 1989.

Vinson was Director of the Sugar Board from 1968 to 1975, Director of British Airports Authority from 1973 to 1980, and Director of the Barclays Bank from 1982 to 1987. He is Co-Founder of the Centre for Policy Studies, for which he worked between 1974 and 1980. Vinson was also chairman and deputy chairman of various firms and trust. Deputy Chairman Electra Investment Trust 1990 to 1998. Member of the Design Council 1973 to 1980.

From 1976 to 1978 Vinson was Honorary Director at the Queen's Silver Jubilee Appeal. He was Member of the Northumbrian National Parks and Countryside Committee between 1977 and 1987, and Member of the Foundation of Science and Technology between 1991 and 1996. Since 2003, he is Trustee of CIVITAS. And is life Vice President of the IEA where he was Chairman of Trustees 1989 to 1995.

He was unsalaried Chairman of the Rural Development Commission 1980 to 1990. He was founder donor Martin Mere Wildfowl Reserve in 1972 and gifted a village green to Holbourn Northumberland in 2006.

Vinson was invested as a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in 1979. On 7 February 1985, he was created a life peer as Baron Vinson, of Roddam Dene in the County of Northumberland. He was a council member of St.Georges House, Windsor Castle 1990 to 1996.

Vinson has been married to Yvonne Collin since 1972; they have three daughters.

He is a regular attender at House of Lords debates, where he has spoken in recent sessions in support of nuclear power, and against what he sees as the folly of policies based on costly British renewable generation solutions, increasing, he argues, fuel poverty, whilst the growing world population issue remains unaddressed.

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