Ian MacGregor

Sir Ian Kinloch MacGregor, KBE (21 September 1912 – 13 April 1998) was a Scottish metallurgist and industrialist, most famous in the UK for his controversial tenure at the British Steel Corporation and his conduct during the 1984–85 miners' strike while managing the National Coal Board.

MacGregor was born in Kinlochleven, Scotland.

His parents were Daniel MacGregor, an accountant at the British Aluminium plant, and his wife Grace Alexanderina, née Fraser MacLean, a schoolteacher.

MacGregor's parents were members of the Calvinist United Free Church and he received a devoutly Christian upbringing.

During the General Strike of 1926, his elder brothers drove trams in Glasgow to help break the strike.

He attended George Watson's College, Edinburgh and Hillhead High School, Glasgow.

At the University of Glasgow, MacGregor studied metallurgy and engineering with some distinction, receiving a first-class degree.

He then earned a diploma with distinction at the Royal College of Science and Technology.

MacGregor started work as a metallurgist in 1935, alongside his father in the Kinlochleven aluminium plant but he was soon recruited as a junior manager at William Beardmore and Company's Parkhead Forge to work on vehicle armour.

There, he faced an early confrontation with trade union leader David Kirkwood in a strike involving crane-drivers.

MacGregor's handling of the matter, involving driving cranes himself for two weeks, brought him to the attention of chairman Sir James Lithgow, who marked him out for rapid promotion.

At the start of World War II in 1939, MacGregor went to work for the Ministry of Supply on the development of tanks.

Minister of Aircraft Production Lord Beaverbrook was the next to spot his talent and commandeered him to travel to Canada and the US on procurement missions for aviation armour.

He was then seconded to the British military mission in the US where he started to become familiar with US industry, including work on the development of the Sherman tank.

At the end of the war in 1945, MacGregor remained in the US, attracted to its culture and disdainful of the newly elected British Labour government with its programme of nationalisation.

In later life he observed:

"I don't like unnecessary class distinctions. The Americans waste no time on them. They don't care who your father was. If you make it to the top and it comes out that your father made moonshine in Tennessee they admire you even more. Now, I like that system."

He was soon to be disabused of the purported classlessness of US society when a proposed takeover of a Connecticut firm fomented strike action.

MacGregor was reputedly threatened by the Mafia and had his car overturned by pickets while he was inside.

His takeover went ahead.

He became chief executive of American Metal Climax in 1966, diversifying the company into mining.

He developed a reputation for shrewd, no-nonsense negotiation in various strands of American business, and an uncompromising attitude towards trade unions accompanied by something of an appetite for confrontation.

His method was to "always get your ducks lined up," and he often referred to his "Department of Economic Warfare".

During the British miners' strike he nostalgically observed:

"I never thought the day would come when I wished I had some of my scruffy, sometimes ill-disciplined, sometimes loud-mouthed American police by my side in this country, and some of the curious ways of the law to back them up."

In later life he explained:

"Management is a calling and people ought to be dedicated to it. British managers have far too much security. A poor manager should be dumped. What's at stake is the happiness of society, not the comfort of managers."

He went on to become a director of Lazard and chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce.

During his chairmanship at American Metal Climax, in 1971–72 MacGregor helped lead a high-level US–EEC Businessmen's Conference at Versailles.

MacGregor served on the Steering Committee, and delivered a speech which reassured Europeans on American commitment for trade expansion.

This was during heightened concerns following the Nixon Administration's decoupling of the dollar's linkage with gold and the threat of Labor-backed legislation (the Burke-Hartke Bill) with protectionist quotas and investment curbs.

He was brought back to British industry by Labour Party prime minister James Callaghan in 1977 as a non-executive director of the ailing nationalised car manufacturer British Leyland.

The intention was that he would act as deputy to chairman Sir Michael Edwardes but MacGregor was not content to operate in a purely strategic role and always maintained that it was he, and not Edwardes, who had taken the pivotal step of dismissing trade unionist Derek Robinson.

Other accounts differ.

In 1979, the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher came to power and embarked, at first tentatively, on the radical programme of industrial restructuring that would come to be known as Thatcherism.

Secretary of State for Industry Sir Keith Joseph recognised MacGregor as an instinctive supporter and potential implementer of the programme.

Joseph appointed MacGregor chairman of the nationalised British Steel Corporation in 1980, the British government paying Lazard's a £1.8 million settlement.

Such a use of government funds, coupled with MacGregor's lack of reputation in Britain led to an outcry in the House of Commons.

His tenure at British Steel was controversial.

On his appointment, British Steel employed 166,000 staff and produced 14 million tons of steel annually at a loss of £1.8 billion.