Nigel Vinson, Baron Vinson, LVO (born 27 January 1931) is a British businessman/inventor and Conservative member of the House of Lords.
Vinson is the son of Ronald Vinson, a farmer, Vinson was educated at Pangbourne. After school he served in the Queen's Royal Regiment from 1948 to 1950, reaching the rank of Lieutenant.
In 1952 Vinson began a small plastics company in Guildford (Plastic Coatings Ltd), which in 1969 was floated on the Stock Exchange, with over 1,000 employees. The business won the Queen's Award for Industry in 1971. Vinson was Deputy Chairman of the Confederation of British Industry's Smaller Firms Council from 1979 to 1984 and President of the Industrial Participation Association from 1979 to 1989. He was Director of the Sugar Board from 1968 to 1975, Director of the British Airports Authority from 1973 to 1980, and a Director of Barclays Bank from 1982 to 1987. He worked for the Centre for Policy Studies between 1974 and 1980. Vinson was Deputy Chairman of Electra Investment Trust 1990 to 1998 and was also chairman and deputy chairman of a number of other firms and trusts. From 1976 to 1978 he was an honorary director of the Queen's Silver Jubilee Appeal. He was a Member of the Northumbrian National Parks and Countryside Committee between 1977 and 1987, and a member of the Foundation for Science and Technology between 1991 and 1996. Since 2003, he is a Trustee of Civitas (think tank). And is life Vice President of the IEA where he was Chairman of Trustees 1989 to 1995.