John Cridland

Who is John Cridland?

John Cridland was appointed as the tenth Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry in January 2011. In this role he is responsible for the CBI's policy and represents the interests of the United Kingdom's business community nationally and internationally.

He was educated at Boston Grammar School and studied Indian and African history at Christ's College, Cambridge.

He joined the CBI as a policy adviser in 1982 and became its youngest ever director in 1991, when he took over the environmental affairs brief. He moved on to human resources policy in 1995, where he helped negotiate the UK’s first national minimum wage and entry into the European Union’s “social chapter” on employment conditions. He was promoted to the post of Deputy Director-General in 2000.

Beyond his work with the CBI, Cridland served on the Low Pay Commission from its formation in 1997 until 2007. He was Vice Chair of the National Learning and Skills Council between 2007 and 2010 and spent 10 years on the Low Pay Commission and the Council of the conciliation service, ACAS.