Leonard Lord Wolfson of Marylebone

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Obituary:

Shrewd but cautious chairman of Great Universal Stores
Martin Adeney
Thu 17 Jun 2010 13.56 EDT

Lord Wolfson's autocratic and highly successful chairmanship of Great Universal Stores (GUS) would have broken almost every tenet of today's corporate governance rulebooks. But it earned the company the nickname "Gorgeous Gussies" for more than 40 years of unbroken profits and provided the funds for the Wolfson Foundation which he established with his parents. Wolfson, who has died aged 82, took a close interest in the foundation.

Leonard Wolfson was born in London, the only son of Isaac and Edith. His charismatic father, the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant to Glasgow, became one of the most successful and flamboyant entrepreneurs of the postwar years. After securing control of GUS in the 1930s, he made a fortune in the 1950s by buying up high-street businesses with unappreciated assets and valuable property portfolios, and he energetically supported a range of Jewish causes.

As a shrewd but cautious strategist, Leonard took the GUS empire on to greater things, but he never shook off comparisons with his dominant father. After King's school, Worcester, he was made a director of the firm in 1952, then managing director in 1962, becoming joint chairman in 1981 and taking control as his father succumbed to Alzheimer's disease. By this time the company's brands featured in every high street, with names such as Times Furnishing, Waring and Gillow, Hector Powe and Burberry providing an eclectic mix alongside the UK's leading mail-order business, which included Marshall Wards and Kays.

But as others bought into high street stores at inflated prices in the 1980s, Wolfson bravely unwound his father's empire and sold off 2,000 shops – all the retail outlets with the exception of Burberrys and Scotch House – and refocused the business. When recession followed, GUS basked in the £1.5bn the sales had brought in.

Upon Wolfson's retirement in 1995, he was thought to be the longest-serving director of any major UK public company. But his achievements were not always lauded. Analysts regarded GUS as boring and predictable, and Wolfson's dislike of journalists and his autocratic and secretive manner did not endear him.

Lord Young of Graffham, Margaret Thatcher's enterprise minister who worked for the firm, once said that the Wolfsons had done him the two greatest favours of his life – Isaac had taught him all he knew; Leonard had made life so unbearable that he had to leave and set up on his own. Leonard's dry observation was that had he known that Young would have worked for so little money as his minister's salary, he would have kept him on.

The company was notoriously uncommunicative, with notably brief annual reports in which Wolfson's remarks often repeated the previous year's. There were no non-executive directors until 1993. His managers were in awe, often given instructions by terse phone calls or acid memos, while one visitor noticed that directors always referred to Wolfson as "sir".

His mood could change suddenly and he could be very rude. His annual visits to sites, where he reputedly paid close attention to the state of the gent's lavatories, were regarded with trepidation. One adviser said: "Leonard varies from being very charming, very sensitive, very caring, to being very mean, very stubborn and very uncompromising."

At a meeting to decide on the choice of computers, there was unanimity among the other 12 people present but Wolfson overruled them all, with the remark that he had 12 casting votes. Ironically, it was probably the right decision and GUS's willingness to invest in appropriate technology was one of its recognised strengths, while another was the responsibility given to competent managers at an early age.

Analysts viewed GUS as the archetypal family business – austere, secretive and obsessed with cash-flow. Wolfson did not disabuse them of the idea, with attention to detail that extended to catalogues, cash collection periods and particularly property. Accounting was rigorous. Family control was the key to the survival of the business. Although the Wolfsons controlled only 2.2%, they were the only shareholders with votes and it was not until 1993 that the rest were enfranchised. It was a successful defensive device, staving off demands for change and the predators of the 1980s and 90s.

Wolfson was an original trustee of the Wolfson Foundation and chairman from 1972 as it built its considerable reputation, specialising in infrastructure investment in medical research, education and science and technology. Apart from Wolfson colleges at both Oxford and Cambridge, the trust has been the largest donor to University College London and a serial benefactor of Birkbeck College, London. It has awarded £600m in grants to 8,000 projects – the equivalent of £1bn in real terms. Originally based solely on GUS shares, the foundation diversified its assets in 1998.

Wolfson was an observant Jew (there would be no business meetings after lunch on Fridays), and took an active role in the community, though he was less high profile than his father. He was president of the Jewish Welfare Board from 1972 until 1982 and was involved in a wide range of UK and Israeli organisations. More political than his father, he took the Conservative whip when he became a life peer in 1985.

His interest in history was reflected in the establishment in 1972 of the annual Wolfson history prizes for works written for the general public and his trusteeship of the Imperial War Museum.

He married Ruth Sterling in 1949, and they had four daughters. After 41 years, the marriage ended abruptly on a Caribbean beach after an argument about where to have lunch. In 1991 Wolfson married Estelle Jackson and in later years visibly mellowed. He is survived by his daughters, his wife and two stepchildren.

Leonard Gordon Wolfson, businessman and philanthropist, born 11 November 1927; died 20 May 2010