Willie Haughey

William Haughey, Baron Haughey, OBE (born 2 July 1956) is a Scottish businessman, philanthropist[1] and chair of City Facilities Management Holdings Ltd.

The Right Honourable

The Lord Haughey

OBE
Born(1956-07-02)2 July 1956[1]
Gorbals,[2] Glasgow, Scotland[3]
OccupationChairman, City Refrigeration Holdings UK Ltd
Net worth £252 million
Political partyLabour

Career

Haughey had attended Holyrood Secondary School[4] followed by Langside College,[5] and then worked in the refrigeration and air-conditioning industry in Abu Dhabi before returning to Scotland to set up his own business with £70,000 of savings he had accrued. He founded City Refrigeration, a refrigeration equipment and maintenance supplier, with his wife Susan in 1985.[6][7]

City Facilities Management headquarters in Glasgow

After securing a service contract with the Tennent's company in the 1980s which led to agreements with further breweries, he sold a majority stake to the 3i equity firm.[5] A downturn in the financial situation caused Haughey to sell two other small companies he had established back to City to increase turnover and broaden the range of services provided by the firm. In 1997 the firm signed a deal with Asda to maintain refrigeration equipment in stores throughout the United Kingdom. Due to the success of that venture, Haughey and his wife found themselves able to buy back almost full control of City from 3i in 1999,[8] allowing them to have decisive input on its future strategic direction;[5] a gradual, continuous expansion of its operations followed over the subsequent decades.[8]

Haughey backed the Entrepreneurial Spark start-up accelerator, hosting the Glasgow 'hatchery' in his City Refrigeration Headquarters.[5]

While the City technical division is located in Clydesmill Industrial Estate near to Cambuslang, its corporate headquarters are at Caledonia House in Gorbals, Glasgow, having relocated from nearby Shawfield in 2009 when those premises were demolished for construction of the M74 motorway completion.[5] The new site was virtually on the site of Haughey's childhood home which had been demolished years earlier[4] with the family moving on to the newly built Toryglen neighbourhood a short distance to the south.[9]

By 2017, the company had been rebranded as City Facilities Management and launched a European arm, headquartered in Paris.[10] Their international clients include Coles Supermarkets in Australia.[5]

In 2020, The high-profile investor Lord Willie Haughey, who helped rescue Celtic from busting in the early 1990s, flatly rejected suggestions that he was interested with an acquisition plan to Rangers.[11]

Personal life and awards

Haughey married Susan in 1978. He has one son Kenny.[5] In his spare time he enjoys playing golf and tournament poker. He once revealed that he winds down every Friday night with a fish supper.[1]

He is a Celtic F.C. season ticket holder and was formerly a non-executive director of the club.[12] He was close friends with former Celtic player Jimmy Johnstone before his death,[1][13][14] and is a collector of club memorabilia,[15] much of which (including the medal collections of Johnstone and Tommy Gemmell) he has loaned back to Celtic for display in their museum.[16][17][18][19]

Haughey provided the sponsorship funds for the 'Active Nation Scottish Cup' in 2010

He also provided £2 million in funding to the Scottish Cup while the tournament did not have a main sponsor between 2008 and 2010,[20] with the Scottish Government allowed to use the 'branding space' competition to promote their Homecoming Scotland 2009[13][21] and Active Nation[22] initiatives.

He is a huge Oasis fan and has confessed to liking 80s band A-ha after a City employee offered him free tickets to an A-ha concert during the band's 2010 farewell tour.

Haughey gave over £5 million to charity over a five-year period.[20] In January 2011 Haughey presented a cheque for £100,000 to UNICEF ambassador Sir Alex Ferguson to support the charity's work with child flood victims in Pakistan.[23][24] In 2010 alone, he made charitable donations of £1.3 million.[20]

He was awarded an OBE in 2003[25] and was knighted in the 2012 Birthday Honours for services to business and philanthropy.[26][27] On 1 August 2013, it was announced he was going to be a Labour peer in the House of Lords.

Haughey has been named in several newspaper reports in connection with the resignation of Steven Purcell, the leader of Glasgow City Council until 2010.[28][29][30][31][32][33][34]

In 2011, Haughey had planning permission for the conversion of Greenleeshill Farm,[35] situated on greenbelt land in South Lanarkshire, with panoramic views over Glasgow[36] into a mansion resembling the White House US presidential residence.[37]

On 18 September 2013 he was created a life peer taking the title Baron Haughey, of Hutchesontown in the City of Glasgow.[38]

The 2017 edition of the Sunday Times Rich List estimated his family's fortune at £265 million.[39]

In 2018, Haughey was reported as having become involved in discussions between the Scottish Football Association and Queen's Park F.C. over the future use of Hampden Park, the stadium used by the former but owned by the latter. With the SFA threatening to move their matches to Edinburgh and unwilling to pay more than £2 million to buy Hampden from Queen's Park while the club demanded £6 million, Haughey stepped in with an offer to 'split the difference' by adding a contribution to raise the purchase offer to £4 million, in order for Scotland matches and cup finals to remain in their traditional Glasgow home.[40][9] He had already donated funds to Queen's Park a decade earlier to help improve the facilities at their Lesser Hampden training ground,[41] which would become the first team match venue in 2021 once the sale of the main stadium was completed.[42] Also in 2018, Lord Willie Haughey has been elected overall winner of the "2018 EY Entrepreneur of the Year for Scotland".[43]

Honours and arms
Coat of arms of Willie Haughey
Escutcheon
Per chevron flory of three on the upper edge Gules and Or.[44]

References
  1. "I may be a millionaire but there's nothing I like better than a fish supper on a Friday night". Evening Times. 3 October 2007. Retrieved 16 January 2017.
  2. "Schemes and dreams: Big Specky Haughey". BBC Radio Scotland. 15 September 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  3. PressTeam Scotland Ltd – Tycoon unveils house plans
  4. "The Early Years". Willie Haughey: An Inspirational Scottish Businessman. Archived from the original on 14 June 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  5. "The Big Profile Blast from the Past: Sir Willie Haughey, City Refrigerations Holdings". Scottish Business Insider. 1 May 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  6. "Sir Willie Haughey's City Refrigeration sees profits up". BBC News. 20 June 2013.
  7. "About City". City Facilities Management. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  8. "Stroke of Genius". Willie Haughey: An Inspirational Scottish Businessman. Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  9. "Lord Haughey insists no strings were attached to Hampden donation". The Scotsman. 2 May 2019. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
  10. "Sir Willie Haughey's City Refrigeration Holdings launched new European venture". Scottish Business Insider. 17 July 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  11. Wright, Scott (15 February 2020). "Former Celtic director Lord Haughey rejects Craig Whyte claims he bid for Rangers". Herald Scotland. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  12. "Five-hour Celtic boardroom row as Haughey quits". The Herald. 30 April 1997. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  13. "Memories of a giant wee man". The Herald. 13 December 2008. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  14. "Jimmy Johnstone's family reveal his struggle after being let go by Jock Stein at Celtic". Daily Record. 18 September 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2018.
  15. "Gold replica of the European Cup won by Celtic in 1967 bought for £58k at auction". Glasgow Live. 1 June 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  16. McColl, Graham; Gemmell, Tommy (2012). Tommy Gemmell: Lion Heart. Random House. ISBN 9781448132454.
  17. "Lisbon Lion selling his coveted winner's medal". The Herald. 2 September 1999. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  18. "Cambuslang businessman ensures Willie Maley medals will remain at Celtic Park". Daily Record / Rutherglen Reformer. 8 March 2017. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  19. "Rare Celtic artefacts returned to Paradise". Celtic F.C. 2 June 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  20. "City Charitable Trust". Willie Haughey: An Inspirational Scottish Businessman. Archived from the original on 12 September 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  21. "Homecoming Scottish Cup Unveiled". BBC Sport. 14 October 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2008.
  22. "Scottish Cup given new branding". BBC Sport. 21 September 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2009.
  23. http://www.beattiegroup.com/prclients/pr-press-releases.aspx?news=31&id=10839
  24. http://www.unicef.org.uk/Latest/News/Willie-Haughey/
  25. "No. 56963". The London Gazette (Supplement). 14 June 2003. p. 11.
  26. "No. 60173". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 June 2012. p. 1.
  27. "No. 60593". The London Gazette. 9 August 2013. p. 15796.
  28. "Resignation is a hammer-blow for Scottish Labour so close to a general election". The Scotsman. Edinburgh. 3 March 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  29. "Steven Purcell: Fall of a High Flier". Scotland on Sunday. 7 March 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  30. Ungoed-Thomas, Jon; MacAskill, Mark (14 March 2010). "Labour donor Willie Haughey in 'cash for favours' row". London: Sunday Times Scotland. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  31. "Company linked to Purcell in £700,000 land deal with Labour donor". The Herald. 21 March 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  32. "Firm caught up in Purcell furore pulls out of Labour party conference". The Herald. 23 March 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  33. "Heartland attack". The Economist. 25 March 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  34. MacAskill, Mark (28 March 2010). "Labour in little local difficulty". London: Sunday Times Scotland. Retrieved 28 March 2010.
  35. "Greenleeshill Farm, Cambuslang". Hawthorne Boyle Ltd. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  36. "Fridge tycoon gets go-ahead for new home after earlier cold shoulder from planners". The Scotsman. 25 January 2011. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  37. "Tycoon aims to make his 'White House' the country's finest home". The Scotsman. 6 December 2007. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  38. "No. 60635". The London Gazette. 23 September 2013. p. 18709.
  39. "Rich list 2017 – Wealthiest in Scotland". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
  40. "Scottish FA close to £4m purchase of Hampden Park – reports". The Scotsman. 10 September 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  41. To play for the sake of playing, The Herald, 22 January 2009
  42. Glasgow Football Club Kick Off 1,700-Seater Stadium Plan, reGlasgow, 20 November 2019
  43. Symon, Ken (22 June 2018). "Lord Willie Haughey is EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 Scotland overall winner". Insider. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  44. "Sir William Haughey, Baron Haughey of Hutchesontown". Heraldry Society of Scotland. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
Orders of precedence in the United Kingdom
Preceded by
The Lord Verjee		 Gentlemen
Baron Haughey 		Followed by
The Lord Balfe
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