The founder of commercial property giant Bruntwood, Michael Oglesby CBE, has died, aged 80.
Mr Oglesby passed away peacefully surrounded by his close family. He is survived by his wife Jean and children Chris and Kate.
He founded Bruntwood in 1970 and built it into one of the UK’s most successful property businesses.
Michael Oglesby was born in 1939 in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire and, after receiving a degree in building at Aston University in Birmingham, he spent his early working years in the construction industry before moving to Manchester in 1970.
Over 40 years he grew Bruntwood from a modest beginnings to becoming one of the leading commercial property owners in the English regions.
The company owns in excess of 120 buildings in Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Liverpool, Leeds and Birmingham, comprising approximately 8,800,000 sq ft with a value in excess of £1 billion.
In Manchester city centre, Bruntwood owns approximately 20 per cent of the commercial office space while in Birmingham its properties include Innovation Birmingham, Mclaren and Cornwall Buildings.
He was married for over 50 years and lived in Bowdon.
The importance of the family was always one of his core beliefs and founded the family stability charity FASTN.
His son Chris succeeded him as CEO of Bruntwood in 1998 and his daughter Kate works in the business and has recently taken over as chair of the Oglesby Charitable Trust (OCT).
A strong believer in both personal and business philanthropy, since 1999, Mr Oglesby devoted the majority of his time to a broad portfolio of activities which cover the arts, civic roles, health and education.
With his wife Jean he established OCT in 2000.
It supports a variety of organisations in education, medical research, the arts and social inequalities and has become one of the North’s major charitable giving organisations.
To date it has donated in excess of £16m to over 300 charities.
Mr Oglesby served as chairman of the steering board for the Manchester Cancer Research Centre and sat on the Manchester LEP board and the global leadership board for the University of Manchester.
He was a vice president of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and, as a Feoffee of Chetham’s School of Music, leading the team responsible for building the new School of Music in Manchester.
A past chairman of the board of governors of the Royal Northern College of Music, MIDAS (responsible for Inward Investment in Manchester) and the Carol Concert Committee of the CLIC Sargent Children’s Cancer Charity.
He also sat on the board of the North West Business Leadership Team and the High Sheriff’s Police Trust.
Paying tribute to Mr Oglesby, Sir Richard Leese, leader of Manchester council, said: “Michael Oglesby was a real friend of Manchester and someone who made a deep and lasting contribution to the city on a number of fronts.
"He played a remarkable role in making the city what it is today.
“Not only have Bruntwood, the company he founded, played an important role in the ongoing regeneration of the city - creating jobs, homes and opportunities and supporting many of the city’s strategic priorities - but they have continued to support and invest in innovation, with developments such as Citylabs where cutting edge medical research is taking place."
He added: "Michael’s philanthropic contribution to the city was huge, with passionate support for various charities, causes and cultural institutions and investment in our young people through the Oglesby Foundation.
"This contribution was not just through money but also the enormous amount of time and energy he gave to the projects he was involved in."
