Michael Clapham (industrialist)
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Sir Michael Clapham KBE |
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| President of Confederation of British Industry | |
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In office 1972–1974 |
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| Chairman of IMI plc | |
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In office 1974–1981 |
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| Chairman of Council for National Academic Awards | |
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In office 1971–1977 |
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| Personal details | |
| Born |
Michael John Sinclair Clapham 17 January 1912 |
| Died | November 11, 2002 (aged 90) London, United Kingdom |
| Citizenship | British |
| Nationality | British |
| Spouse(s) | Elisabeth Rea |
| Relations | Sir John Clapham (father) Walter Rea, 1st Baron Rea (father-in-law) Philip Rea, 2nd Baron Rea (brother-in-law) Nicolas Rea, 3rd Baron Rea (nephew) |
| Children | Adam, Marcus, Antonia, Giles |
| Residence | London, United Kingdom |
| Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Industrialist Printer |
| Known for |
Pharmaceuticals Printing |
Sir Michael Clapham KBE (1912 - 2002) was a prominent British Industrialist who served as president of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) in the mid-1970s during a period of significant economic turmoil and as a senior executive of ICI throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. As CBI president he witnessed the fall of the administration of Edward Heath in the wake of the miners' strike, and the re-emergence of the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. He was directly involved, along with CBI director-general Campbell Adamson, in intense and volatile debate on voluntary pay restraint and price controls with Heath and trade union leaders.
Remarkably, Clapham who was a classical scholar and a master printer by trade, also invented an isotope diffusion barrier whilst working on silk screen printing techniques during World War Two which led to him being seconded to the Tube Alloys Project pursuing the development of the atom bomb.
Clapham (born on 17 January 1912), the son of Sir John Clapham, who was Vice-Provost and Professor of Economic History at King's College, Cambridge. Michael was a chorister at Kings and was educated at Marlborough and then at his father's college where he read Classics. Unusually, given his academic background, after coming down from Cambridge in 1933 he became a printer's apprentice at Cambridge University Press reportedly earning 10 shillings a week.
Clapham moved from Cambridge to Bradford where he worked for printer Lund Humphries, and then, in 1938, to the Kynoch Press in Birmingham which was part of the huge ICI conglomerate. He was allegedly told, when he commenced his employment that he would struggle to advance in the company as he was neither a chemist nor an engineer and yet he was to remain in the employ of the chemicals giant, in a variety of capacities, until 1974.
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