Lives Remembered: Sir Adrian Cadbury

Sir Adrian Cadbury, who passed away last week aged 86

FOR nearly 20 years Sir Adrian Cadbury was chairman of the famous chocolate factory that bears his family name.

 

He was also an Olympic rower who competed for Britain in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki and a leading champion of corporate governance. 

Born in Birmingham, George Adrian Hayhurst Cadbury was the grandson of George Cadbury, who had built the Bournville factory and the second son of Joyce and Laurence Cadbury, a prominent business figure who had served as chairman of both the chocolate business and the family-owned social reform paper News Chronicle. 

He was schooled at Eton and after serving in the Coldstream Guards, read economics at King’s College, Cambridge, where he also won a rowing blue. 

After competing in the coxless fours in Helsinki he summed up the experience as “the greatest thing that ever happened to me.” 

 

After university he joined the family firm, where he worked in every department. 

“You listen, learn, get to know and work together. It is one of the biggest lessons,” he said. 

You listen, learn, get to know and work together. It is one of the biggest lessons

Sir Adrian Cadbury

 

His diligence and determination were finally rewarded in the mid-60s when he was made chairman. 

Under his watch the company saw the biggest transformation in its history when in 1969 it merged with soft drinks firm Schweppes to exploit opportunities in the United States.

Cadbury became managing director before taking over the chairmanship in 1975, a position he held until 1990 when he retired. 

In 1991 he was asked to lead a committee on the financial aspects of corporate governance following a number of financial scandals in the late 1980s. 

In 1992 he published the Cadbury Report, making a number of recommendations including that there should be a clear division of responsibilities at the head of a company. 

The Cadbury Code remains the first port of call for any study of corporate governance. 

Awarded a knighthood in 1977 Sir Adrian was given the Freedom of the City of Birmingham in 1982 and received several honorary degrees in recognition of his contribution to commerce, corporate governance and public life over the years. 

He was a director at the Bank of England from 1970 to 1994 and Chancellor of Aston University from 1979 to 2004. 

He is survived by his three children from his first marriage to Gillian, who died in 1992. 

His second wife Susan passed away in 2010.