Victor Blank

Sir Maurice Victor Blank, (born 9 November 1942) is a British businessman and philanthropist. He is the former Chairman of Lloyds TSB and the current Chairman of several educational and charitable organisations including the Social Mobility Foundation, UJS Hillel and Wellbeing of Women.

Born in 1942, he was educated at and then obtained an MA in Modern History at St Catherine's College, Oxford.

In 1969, aged 26, Blank was made the youngest Partner in the history of legal firm Clifford-Turner (now Clifford Chance). At Clifford-Turner he specialised in corporate law, and co-wrote a textbook on mergers titled Weinberg & Blank on Take-overs and Mergers. He left Clifford Turner in 1981 to become Head of Corporate Finance at Charterhouse Bank (now part of HSBC), where he masterminded the buyout of Woolworth's. From 1985-1996 he held the posts of Chairman and Chief Executive of Charterhouse. He was also a Director of the Royal Bank of Scotland from 1985 to 1993.

In 1999, Blank was appointed Chairman of Mirror Group Newspapers which, during his tenure, became the U.K.’s largest newspaper publishing group as part of the Trinity Mirror conglomerate. From 1993-2006 he was Vice Chairman and then Chairman of Great Universal Stores plc, a conglomerate in the FTSE 100, which was separated into four different companies (Experian, Argos & Homebase, Burberry and Lewis Stores), the shares of which were distributed to shareholders. He was made Chairman of GUS in 2000.

He was knighted in 1999 for services to the financial industry. In May 2006, Sir Victor became Chairman of Lloyds TSB which, in 2008, took over Halifax Bank Of Scotland (HBOS) to become the U.K.’s largest retail bank. He was a member of the Financial Reporting Council from 2002 to 2007, and a member of the Council of Oxford University from 2000 to 2007. He was appointed a senior adviser to US private equity group TPG Capital in November 2007. From 2000-2006 Sir Victor was also Chairman of the Industrial Development Advisory Board. In 2010, Sir Victor was appointed as a UK Business Ambassador by the government to promote British commercial interests around the world. After the election in 2010 Sir Victor was invited to continue as a Business Ambassador by Prime Minister David Cameron.

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