Leon Bagrit
{{Short description|British businessman}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Sir Leon Bagrit
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 13 March 1902
| birth_place = Kiev, Russian Empire
| death_date = 22 April 1979
| death_place =
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation = Industrialist
| years_active =
| known_for = As a pioneer of automation
| notable_works =
}}
Sir Leon Bagrit (13 March 1902 – 22 April 1979) was a leading British industrialist and pioneer of automation.
Early life and education
Born to Jewish parents in Kiev, in the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine), Sir Leon studied law at Birkbeck College in the University of London, formed his own company in 1935, and for many years headed the revamped firm of Elliott-Automation Ltd., which, outside the United States, was the largest computer manufacturer in the world.{{cite book |last1=Taku |first1=Thomas A. |title=Framework for Industrialization in Africa |date=1999 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=9780275964986 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I7JNoIcUycQC&q=Elliott-Automation+Ltd.%2C+which%2C+outside+the+United+States%2C+was+the+largest+computer+manufacturer+in+the+world.&pg=PA90 |language=en}}
Career
Leon Bagrit was a member of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, 1963–1965 and the Advisory Council on Technology, 1964-1979. He was a director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1962-1970. He founded the Friends of Covent Garden, and chaired it, 1962-1969. In 1964, he was invited by the BBC to present the Reith Lectures.{{cite web |title=BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/reithlectures |website=BBC}} Across six broadcasts, titled The Age of Automation,{{cite web |title=BBC Radio 4 - The Reith Lectures, Leon Bagrit: The Age of Automation: 1964 |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h9l82 |website=BBC}} he explored how the increased technological development of the time would change people's lifestyles, and the wider world.
Due to the generosity of the Bagrit Trust, a dedicated building, the Sir Leon Bagrit Centre, was opened in the summer of 1991. This Centre formed a cornerstone of the Department of Bioengineering at Imperial College London and the next step in the development of bioengineering at Imperial.{{cite web |title=The Sir Leon Bagrit Memorial Trust |url=https://www.imperial.ac.uk/bioengineering/about/history/bagrittrust/ |website=Imperial College London}}
See also
References
{{more footnotes needed|date=July 2016}}
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070930043328/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,940215,00.html?promoid=googlep Time Magazine]
- The BBC [http://www.bbc.co.uk/reithlectures Reith Lectures]: [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h9l82 The Age of Automation]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bagrit, Leon}}
Category:Businesspeople from Kyiv
Category:People from Kievsky Uyezd
Category:Soviet emigrants to the United Kingdom
Category:British people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Category:20th-century Ukrainian people
Category:People educated at St Olave's Grammar School
Category:20th-century British businesspeople
Category:Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London
{{UK-business-bio-1900s-stub}}