Irvine Laidlaw, Baron Laidlaw#Charity donations

The son of Margaret and Roy Laidlaw,{{Cite web|title=Laidlaw, Baron, (Irvine Alan Stewart Laidlaw) (born 22 Dec. 1942)|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-44487|access-date=2021-07-11|website=WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|year=2007|language=en|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u44487|isbn=978-0-19-954088-4}} a Banffshire mill-owner, Laidlaw was educated at Merchiston Castle School, Leeds University and New York City's Columbia Business School.

After graduation, Laidlaw turned a small US publishing company bought in 1973 into the Institute for International Research (IIR), the world's largest conference organiser. After calling off a £500m flotation in 2001 when the market plunged, he sold IIR in 2005 for a sum believed to be in the order of £768m.

In 1988 Laidlaw founded Abbey Business Centres, a subsidiary of IIR providing serviced office space, meeting room facilities and virtual office packages in 13 business centres in Great Britain.{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2916668/Informa-beats-rivals-to-buy-Laidlaws-firm-for-1.4billion.html | location=London | work=The Daily Telegraph | first=Harry | last=Wallop | title=Informa beats rivals to buy Laidlaw's firm for .4billion | date=2 June 2005}} The first business centre opened in Glasgow, and soon the company opened up another centre in Slough, Berkshire. Other centres were added, and in 2009 a total of 13 centres made up the organisation.

In 2015, the University of Leeds launched an official opening for the £26 million Laidlaw Library, named after Irvine Laidlaw, who had previously studied economics at the university in the 1960s. His £9 million donation is the largest the university has received from any donor.{{cite news|title=New state-of-the-art Leeds library|url=http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/latest-news/top-stories/lord-melvyn-bragg-opens-new-state-of-the-art-leeds-library-1-7349712|newspaper=Yorkshire Evening Post}} Laidlaw part owns a $2.1 billion wind-farm project, and earlier this year secured the largest clean-energy financing in 2015 from eight lenders, which included Deutsche Bank AG.

Laidlaw previously owned and raced a Jaguar, which won Le Mans a number of times throughout the 1950s, along with a number of other vintage cars, including a 1962 Ferrari GTO. in 2013, Irvine Laidlaw stopped racing.{{cite news|title=Wind farm clinches biggest renewable financing|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-01/racing-baron-s-wind-farm-clinches-biggest-renewable-financing|newspaper=Bloomberg|date=July 2015 }} In 2013, he sold a collection of classic sports cars to raise £17 million.{{cite news|title=Irvine Laidlaw poised to raise £17m by selling off his collection of classic sports cars|url=http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/lord-irvine-laidlaw-expected-bring-2064604|newspaper=Daily Record}}

In 2004, Laidlaw said that he would over the next 20–30 years donate most of his fortune to helping disadvantaged young people. His main vehicle used to be the Laidlaw Youth Project, which supported a range of charitable work for disadvantaged youngsters in Scotland from 2004 to 2007 when it became the Laidlaw Youth Trust (no longer operational). Currently, he is Chairman of the Irvine Laidlaw Foundation, simply known as the Laidlaw Foundation, which he set up to aid the advancement of education, especially the education of deprived young people, in particular by means of grants and other forms of financial assistance to institutions which are engaged in the provision of educational services in any part of the world.{{cite web|title=The Irvine Laidlaw Foundation Charity Details|url=https://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regid=1175245&subid=0/}} The Foundation's activity consists of three core programmes:

• The Laidlaw Undergraduate Research and Leadership Scholarship Programme - as of 2023, the scholarship programme operates in 19 universities around the world, including Barnard College, Columbia University, EPFL, Imperial College London, London School of Economics, University of Cambridge, University College London and University of Oxford. Every year, the programme funds cohorts of around 25 students at every institution for two summers to complete a research project with an academic supervisor, and undergo training to develop their leadership skills.{{cite web|title=The Laidlaw Undergraduate Research and Leadership Scholarship Programme|url=https://laidlawfoundation.com/scholars/#undergraduate-scholars/}}

• The Laidlaw Women's Business Education Programme - full and partial scholarships are awarded to women with financial constraints to complete MBAs in order to help them get into senior roles and ultimately achieve gender parity in industries around the world.{{cite web|title=Laidlaw Women's Business Education Scholarship|url=https://laidlawfoundation.com/scholars/#MBA-women-scholars/}} The programme currently operates in Columbia Business School, London Business School, and in March 2020 it was also announced that Saïd Business School will join as well.{{cite web|title=Laidlaw Foundation funds Oxford MBA Scholarships for women with £1.35m donation|date=9 March 2020 |url=https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/news/laidlaw-foundation-funds-oxford-mba-scholarships-women-ps135m-donation/}} In 2023, it was announced that HEC Paris would join the programme, and in 2024, IE Madrid will be joining. So far, Laidlaw donated $2 million to Columbia Business School, £3.69m to London Business School, and £1.35m to Saïd Business School as part of this scholarship programme.

• The Laidlaw Schools Trust - a multi-academy trust founded in 2008,{{cite web|title=Laidlaw Schools Trust|url=https://laidlawfoundation.com/schools-trust/}} which currently consists of 11 academies in the North East of England with 5500+ students and 850+ staff in total: Excelsior Academy, Academy 360, Atkinson Road Primary Academy, South Hylton Primary Academy, Thomas Walling Primary Academy, Westgate Hill Primary Academy, and Sedgefield Community College.

He has also donated:{{cite news|url=http://news.scotsman.com/laidlawscharitydonations/Tycoon-Laidlaw-to-give-away.2830133.jp|title=Tycoon Laidlaw to give away fortune|newspaper=The Scotsman|date=26 November 2006|access-date=27 April 2008}}

• £2 million to The Prince's Trust{{cite news|url=http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/mediacentre/inthenews/prince_s_trust_donation_253381602.html|title=Prince's Trust donation|publisher=The Prince's Trust|date=28 June 2006|access-date=27 April 2008}}
• After Moray Council earmarked Rothiemay Primary School for closure, Laidlaw donated funds to a parents campaign which successfully kept 21 schools open
• Donated R9 million to fund the Amakhaya Ngoku housing project{{cite web|title=Lord Laidlaw donating R9 million to fund Amakhaya Ngoku housing project|url=http://uctscholar.uct.ac.za/PDF/57852_Tyler,%20R.pdf|publisher=University of Cape Town|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007024711/http://uctscholar.uct.ac.za/PDF/57852_Tyler,%20R.pdf|archive-date=7 October 2015}}
• Laidlaw scholarship at Newcastle University, in which he funds 50% of the funding along with the university.
• Supporting the Glyndebourne Festival production.{{cite web|title=Glyndebourne Festival season preview|url=http://www.glyndebourne.com/discover/news-and-blogs/2013/august/1934-2014-80th-anniversary-glyndebourne-festival-season-preview/|publisher=Glyndebourne}}
• Donating £100,000 to Scottish Opera{{cite web|title=Lord Laidlaw donates to Scottish Opera|url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12434924.A_night_at_the_opera__thanks_to_a_generous_millionaire_Lord_Laidlaw_donates_GBP100_000_to_company/|work=Scotland Herald|date=2 June 2006 }}
• Private investor for Ben Ainslie Racing{{cite web|title=Ainslie Announces Cup Team|date=10 June 2014|url=http://www.yachtingworld.com/blogs/matthew-sheahan/ainslie-announces-cup-team-162|publisher=Yachting World}}
• Donor to the Rural Education Access Programme{{cite web|title=Rural Education Access Programme|url=http://www.reap.org.za/pieces/reports/pdf/progress_reports/mid_year/2010_REAP_mid_year_progress_report.pdf}}
• £40,000 to Keith Grammar School, to fund a scheme to help senior pupils prepare for the world of work
• £1 million to Merchiston Castle School his former school; despite having disliked attending it, he eventually relented to persuasion by the headmaster and donated this sum. The new sixth-form house at the school, which his donation went some way to financing is named Laidlaw House.
• £9 million to the University of Leeds to support the development of the new undergraduate library, the Laidlaw Library, which opened in May 2015.{{cite web|title=About the Laidlaw Library|url=https://library.leeds.ac.uk/info/416/building_developments/288/about_the_laidlaw_library/1|website=University Library|publisher=University of Leeds|access-date=23 July 2015}}
• £4 million to the University of St Andrews to support the construction of a new music building, the Laidlaw Music Centre, which opened in April 2022.{{cite news |title=Laidlaw Music Centre hits the high note |url=https://news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/laidlaw-music-centre-hits-the-high-note/ |work=University of St Andrews |date=4 April 2022}}

In 2007, he set up the Laidlaw Youth Trust which from 2007 to 2009 spent over £6 million in Scotland on good causes related to disadvantaged children and young people. In 2007, in emerged that the Scottish Executive had given sufficient donations to pay the salary of the CEO Laidlaw Youth project, Maureen McGinn – who is also the wife of Scotland's most senior civil servant, Sir John Elvidge.{{cite news|url=http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1411844.0.executive_funded_tory_tax_exiles_charity_with_taxpayers_money.php|title=Executive funded Tory tax exile's charity with taxpayers' money|newspaper=Sunday Herald|date=20 May 2007|access-date=27 April 2008|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070528192155/http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1411844.0.executive_funded_tory_tax_exiles_charity_with_taxpayers_money.php|archive-date=28 May 2007}}

He closed the Trust in 2009 because he was spending more time in South Africa and said he wanted to focus his charitable giving there. It is not known how much he has gifted in his new adopted country but he was involved in some township housing project.

In his ongoing commitment to arts and education, Lord Laidlaw founded the Laidlaw Opera Trust. The Trust aims to promote and sustain the art of opera. The Trust's key initiatives include market research on public perceptions of opera, hosting thought leadership events such as "The Business of Opera," and providing support to major opera houses and festivals.

Chair: Lord Irvine Laidlaw

Trustees include Anne Marabini Young, Bryan Evans MBE, The Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Haddon-Cave, and Lady Amanda Haddon-Cave.

One of the largest financial backers of the UK's Conservative Party, Laidlaw was made a life peer as Baron Laidlaw, of Rothiemay in Banffshire on 14 June 2004.{{London Gazette |issue=57328 |date=17 June 2004 |page=7561}} According to the records of the UK Electoral Commission, on 27 November 2007, Laidlaw gave a donation of £2,990,532.20 to the Conservatives.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2008/feb/21/partyfunding|title=Party donations hit midterm record of £56m|newspaper=The Guardian|date=21 February 2008|access-date=27 April 2008}} Laidlaw donated £25,000 to the 2008 London Mayoral election campaign of Boris Johnson.

In 2008, Lord Laidlaw was described by The Guardian as a "Monaco-based tax exile".{{cite news | first=Jamie | last=Doward | title= How short-selling profited the Tories A group of high-profile hedge fund managers who have been criticised for exacerbating the financial crisis are part of an elite pack of Conservative supporters, reports Jamie Doward. Could David Cameron's commitment to transforming the party image fall victim to the credit crunch? | date=28 September 2008 | url =https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/sep/28/marketturmoil.shares | work =The Guardian | access-date = 28 September 2008 | location=London}}

Lord Laidlaw was criticised in April 2007 in the press for failing to become UK tax resident despite being appointed to the House of Lords. The BBC said that, in a letter seen by them, Laidlaw "cites a variety of personal reasons" for non-compliance.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110429132115/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3056699.ece Row over Tories’ offshore donor, Irvine Laidlaw] Sunday Times – 16 December 2007 Criticism by Dennis Stevenson, Baron Stevenson of Coddenham, chair of the House of Lords Appointments Commission, on assurances given to the Commission by Laidlaw to become a UK tax resident by April 2004, were followed by Laidlaw taking leave of absence from the House of Lords.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/jun/07/partyfunding.uk|title=Tory donor criticised over tax status|newspaper=The Guardian|date=7 June 2007|access-date=27 April 2008}} In 2010 following the enactment of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 he stepped down from his seat in the House of Lords to maintain his non-domiciled status and so be able to avoid paying UK residents' taxes.

Laidlaw and his wife Christine divide their time between an apartment in Monaco overlooking the harbour; and their South African home, an early 20th-century 23,200 m² estate in Noordhoek, near Cape Town. At the time of the purchase, in November 2005, it was the country's most expensive property, bought for R106 million.

In April 2008, Laidlaw was the target of a sting operation staged by investigative journalist Mazher Mahmood on behalf of the British tabloid The News of the World, which revealed that Laidlaw hired up to five £3,000 vice girls at a time for all-night orgies involving spanking, bondage and lesbian sex at a Monaco hotel.{{Cite news|last=Bourne|first=Brendan|title=Tory peer Lord Laidlaw seeks treatment for sex addiction|newspaper=The Times|language=en|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tory-peer-lord-laidlaw-seeks-treatment-for-sex-addiction-6p56jnwq07f|access-date=2020-07-11|issn=0140-0460}}

Image:Sur la grille (Maserati 2432).jpg

Laidlaw regularly competes in historic car racing around the world with his Porsche 904GTS, Porsche 904/6, Maserati 250S & Maserati 6CM. Laidlaw also won a medal in the Scottish amateur rally, using a Ford Focus ST. In 2007 Laidlaw added a 1001 hp Bugatti Veyron to his extensive car collection, which is sometimes seen between Noordhoek and Cape Town, on the world-famous coastal road Chapman's Peak Drive.

Laidlaw has owned various luxury motor yachts with the most highprofile being Fedship built motor yacht, the Lady Christine, in 2003.{{Cite web|title=Profile: superyacht owner Lord Irvine Laidlaw|url=https://www.boatinternational.com/luxury-yacht-life/owners-experiences/lunch-with-superyacht-owner-lord-irvine-laidlaw--1555|access-date=2021-02-25|website=www.boatinternational.com|language=en}}

Laidlaw has been active within the yacht racing for most of his working life. He has won high-profile events including Key West Regatta and the Round the Island Race. Highly active on the maxi racing scene, he is a member of the Royal Thames Yacht Club. Laidlaw conceptualized the Cape 31 class. Some of his yachts are as follows:

{{Infobox COA wide

|image = File:Coronet of a British Baron.svgFile:Escutcheon of Irvine Laidlaw, Baron Laidlaw.svg

| footnotes =

|year_adopted =

|coronet = Coronet of a Baron

|escutcheon = Sable, a Chevron Or, between in chief two Bezants, and in base a Sheep statant Argent.

|supporters = Dexter: a Boy wearing a Kilt of Scot Green Tartan proper.
Sinister: a Girl wearing a Dress Argent, and Sash of Scot Green Tartan proper.

|crest = A Red Squirrel sejant proper.

|badge =

|motto = SEMPER CONTENDO (Always disputing)

|symbolism =

}}

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.superyachttimes.com/yachts/details/572/ Superyacht Lady Christine at Superyacht Times]
• [https://www.theyworkforyou.com/peer/lord_laidlaw Lord Laidlaw] at TheyWorkForYou
• [http://www.abbeyoffices.com Abbey Business Centres]
• [https://library.leeds.ac.uk/new-undergraduate-library The Laidlaw Library] at the University of Leeds.
• [https://irvinelaidlaw.co.uk/ Irvine Laidlaw]
• [https://laidlawfoundation.com/]
• [https://laidlawschoolstrust.com/]
• [https://beta.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?regid=1175245&subid=0/]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Laidlaw, Irvine Laidlaw, Baron}}

Category:1943 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Keith, Moray

Category:Nobility from Moray

Category:People educated at Merchiston Castle School

Category:Alumni of the University of Leeds

Category:Columbia Business School alumni

Category:Scottish company founders

Category:Conservative Party (UK) life peers

Category:Scottish Conservative politicians

Category:Scottish billionaires

Category:British car collectors

Category:Conservative Party (UK) donors

Category:Scottish expatriates in Monaco

Category:British expatriates in Monaco

Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II

Category:People from Milltown of Rothiemay

Category:Peers retired from the House of Lords