Sir Paul Judge obituary: Philanthropist, entrepreneur and businessman

Sir Paul Judge, who has died following a short illness, was the business leader, former Conservative Party grandee and philanthropist who used his considerable fortune to help political and educational causes over the past 30 years.

Judge was born in London in 1949 and educated at Christchurch School, Forest Hill and St Dunstan’s College. He read natural sciences and management studies at Cambridge University on an open scholarship and graduated in 1971. Continuing his commercial education, he obtained an MBA at the Wharton Business School on a Thouron Fellowship.

He began his business career in the finance department of Cadbury Schweppes, soon rising to group deputy finance director in 1978, aged just 28. Following an overseas role as managing director of the company’s Kenya subsidiary, he became managing director of Cadbury Typhoo, running a business with a turnover of £150m and 3,000 staff.

In 1986 Judge initiated and led the management buyout of Cadbury Schweppes for £97m, creating Premier Brands, a company which he successfully turned around and sold four years later for £310m. Judge’s investment of £90,000 had grown to £45m.

In 1990 he donated £8m of this new-found fortune to his alma mater to fund the creation of a new Judge Institute for Management Studies, now known as the Judge Business School, which today has 80 academic staff and more than 400 students.

As director general of the Conservative Party from 1992 to 1995, he was responsible for improving the party’s precarious financial position, reducing an overdraft of £19m down to around £2m. The party’s then-chairman described him as “the person primarily responsible for improving the management of the Conservative Party organisation and for achieving the turnaround in our financial fortunes”. He was appointed Knight Bachelor the following year, recognising his public and political service.

By 2009 Judge had become disillusioned with the Conservatives and with party politics in general, in the wake of the growing scandal over MPs’ expenses. He proposed a solution to “clean up politics” in the form of the Jury Team, a political party founded to back independent candidates and increase their representation at national and European level.

The “non-party” party supported 59 candidates for the European Parliament elections in June that year and contested the Glasgow North East by-election, following the resignation of Michael Martin, the disgraced House of Commons Speaker. The Jury Team candidate, John Smeaton, received just 258 votes and came eighth out of the 13 who ran for the seat. The following year the Jury Team presented candidates for May’s general election, with the aim of increasing the number of independents in the Commons, but none of them won seats.

Judge took on a number of largely titular roles within the City of London, including as Sheriff during 2013-2014. He was a founder and sponsoring Alderman for the Guild of Entrepreneurs, an organisation formed just three years ago, combining the traditions of the medieval guild with the high-tech business world of the 21st century.

Sir Paul Judge, born 25 April 1949, died 21 May 2017