Robert Worcester

Sir Robert Worcester, KBE, DL born December 21, 1933, is the founder and Life President of the MORI polling and research organisation, and a member and contributor to many voluntary organisations. He is a well known figure in British research and political circles and as a media commentator, especially about voting intentions in elections. Following the sale of MORI to French research company, Ipsos, in October 2005, he became chairman of the advisory board of Ipsos Public Affairs worldwide.

Background

A Kansas City native, Worcester graduated from the University of Kansas in 1955, and worked for a time with management consultants McKinsey & Company.

Pollster

In 1965, he worked for Opinion Research Corporation as Assistant to the Chairman, before coming to Britain in 1969 to found Market & Opinion Research International, usually known as MORI.He is Past President of the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR). He is a Fellow of the Marketing Society, and of the Market Research Society

University connections

Sir Robert is a Governor of the LSE, a Governor of the University of Kent and is Honorary Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent and in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Warwick University. Sir Robert was appointed as Chancellor of the University of Kent on 13 July 2006. He took up his new role on 1 August 2006, succeeding Sir Crispin Tickell who retired after 10 years as the University’s Chancellor. Worcester has been awarded four honorary doctorates from the University of Buckingham, the University of Bradford, Middlesex University and the University of Greenwich. He has previously been Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, in Journbalism at City University and in Marketing at the University of Strathclyde.

Elite policy planning groups

As Chairman of the atlanticist dining group the Pilgrims Society, he currently co-chairs the Jamestown 2007 Commemoration British Committee. He is a Governor of the English Speaking Union, a trustee of the Magna Carta Trust, and a Governor of the Ditchley Foundation. He was also a member of the Fulbright Commission. He is an advisor to the Institute for Business Ethics and Forum for the Future. He is on the board of the United Nations Association and of the European Atlantic Group.

Clubs

His clubs are the Reform Club and the Beefsteak.

Voluntary Sector

He is President of ENCAMS (Keep Britain Tidy), a Vice President of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts. Sir Robert is a Trustee of Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. He is a Freeman of the City of London. He is a Member of the Advisory Council of the National Consumer Council and a former Trustee of WWF (Worldwide Fund for Nature).

Kent connections

Sir Robert is a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Kent and a Kent County Council appointed Kent Ambassador. He is a Non-Executive Director of Kent Messenger Group and is Chairman of Maidstone Radio, CTR 105.4 fm, is on the Board of Locate in Kent. He is a Member of the Advisory Councils of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)and was a Non-Executive Director of the Medway Maritime Hospital NHS Trust until 2004. He is a Kent County Council appointed Kent Ambassador, on the Kent Partnership Board and the board of Locate in Kent. He and his wife, Margaret, Lady Worcester, live at the 13th century Allington Castle, on the River Medway in Kent, where Sir Robert is also one of Her Majesty's Deputy Lieutenants. They have two sons.

Official honours

He was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2004 in recognition of the “outstanding services rendered to political, social and economic research and for contribution to government policy and programmes”. He took British citizenship later that year, and in 2005 his knighthood was made substantive (allowing him to use the title "Sir").

Publications

Worcester is author, co-author, editor or co-editor of more than a dozen books and many articles in professional journals, newspapers and magazines. He is co-editor of the Consumer Market Research Handbook (McGraw Hill), a founding co-editor of The International Journal of Public Opinion Research and h is most recent book, with Roger Mortimore, is Explaining Labour's Second Landslide (Politico's, 2001). He writes monthly columns for Profile and Parliamentary Monitor, is a frequent contributor to the Financial Times and various other newspapers and magazines and frequently appears on British, American and Canadian television and radio.

Affiliations

• Ditchley Foundation, Governor
• MORI
• Pilgrims Society, Chairman

Notes

1. ^ Knighthood for Robert Worcester, MORI Chairman Ipsos MORI news release, 9 February 2005.
2. ^Public Opinion in Britain - talk by Robert Worcester at the 2001 Trilateral Commission meeting
3. Advisory Council Institute for Business Ethics
4. http://www.kent.ac.uk/politics/aboutus/staff/academic/worcester.htm