A pioneer of ethical finance, Terence James Thomas – Lord Thomas of Macclesfield – passed away on 1 July at the age of 80.
A former managing director of the Co-operative Bank, he established a new approach to finance, placing ethical and environmental concerns at the heart of the business.
He started working for the Bank in 1973, as the first marketing manager of any UK bank. After being appointed managing director in 1988, he commissioned a statue of Victorian social reformer Robert Owen, which was placed outside the Bank’s premises on Balloon Street, Manchester.
Owen’s take on management influenced Lord Thomas’s own. He committed the Bank to a customer-led ethical and environmental policy in 1992, which the organisation continued to develop following his retirement. He also introduced free banking to UK consumers.
He spent 25 years at the Bank before retiring and joining the House of Lords as a Labour peer in 1997.
In addition to his work within the UK co-operative movement, he served as president of the International Co-operative Banking Association between 1988 and 1996. He was visiting professor of Stirling University and chief examiner of the Chartered Institute of Bankers. He also chaired the East Manchester Partnership between 1990 and 1996.
Paul Monaghan, chief executive of the Fair Tax Mark and former head of sustainability at the Co-op Group, said: “Terry brought me into the Co-op Bank in 1994 to add some science and steel to the Bank’s environmental programmes – he wanted to create nothing less than the world’s first ecological bank.
“He wasn’t just way ahead of all other banks back then, he was way ahead of the vast majority of environmental campaigning groups. He was an inspiration to work with and I would suggest that he is arguably the most important co-operator of modern times. He turned the Co-operative Bank from laughable basket case to world-renowned champion of ethical business conduct.
“Before TJT, the UK’s co-op movement was shrinking into irrelevance and obscurity, but he demonstrated what co-operative values and principles looked like in a modern context – and forced the movement to radically up its game.”
Mr Monaghan added: “I’ve never seen a business leader so loved by employees as Terry was: he left his last management conference to floods of tears akin to a retiring pop star.
“He and the Body Shop’s Anita Roddick raised the bar on corporate responsibility more than anyone in that era. He took on issues well ahead of the curve: from climate change to landmines, and shook up everyone from the Bank of England to the Chemicals Industries Association. The in-house legal team were always busy.
“We met regularly following his retirement and I’m sad to say that it pained him that he was never accorded the credit he deserved by much of the co-op movement – but then again, when he ran for the Co-op Group CEO position (where the retirement age was five years later than at the Bank) he did pledge a radical ethical renaissance and an end to the sale of tobacco products! The world really is the poorer for his passing.”
Frank Nelson, member of the Group’s National Members’ Council, who worked with Lord Thomas at the Co-op Bank, said: “Shortly after joining, to the exasperation of the Big Four, he introduced free banking to UK consumers.
“In 1988 he became the Bank’s chief executive and commissioned the development and launch in 1992 of the Bank’s unique customer-led ethical policy. He was responsible in large measure for the Co-operative Bank becoming the most popular bank in the country and, under his leadership, the bank was embedded with our Co-operative Values and Principles. He was, in my 40-year Co-op career – including a spell as a marketing manager at the Bank – the best co-op leader I have ever met. I’ll remember him for that.”
Malcolm Hurlston CBE ,who worked with Lord Thomas throughout his career in banking and introduced him to employee share ownership in the US, said: “Lord Thomas was the leading personal banker of his generation and probably of the 20th century.
“He came to prominence in 1973 when he joined the Co-operative Bank as the first marketing manager of any UK bank; there he introduced free banking, the free-for-life credit card and an ethical stance. Then he became the first managing director of Unity Trust, co-owned by the Co-op and the trade unions, where he brought employee share ownership to Britain.
“In 1988, he was recalled full-time to head the Co-operative Bank, which became the most popular bank in the country under his leadership, re-infusing the Bank with co-operative principles and working closely with the Labour Party of which he had been a life-long supporter.”
He added: “In his role as the first chair of the East Manchester Partnership he played a major role in the regeneration of east Manchester and was instrumental in bringing the 2002 Commonwealth Games to the city. He also became the first chairman of the North West Regional Development Agency.
“He became a life peer in 1997, intending a new career in public service which was unfortunately shortened by illness. He was personal, committed and engaging: few could resist his conviction, charm, hywl and passionate commitment to good causes. TJT, as he was affectionately known, was greatly respected and admired by all his colleagues. He was the popular personal banker whose memory lives on in an era when corporate bankers have never been so scorned.”
Ed Mayo, secretary general of Co-operatives UK, said: “The death of Lord Thomas has stripped us of the most imaginative and far-sighted co-operative entrepreneur of his day. He was the great reinventor of co-operative values in his time at the Co-operative Bank.”
The Co-op Group’s member nominated director and former MP, Hazel Blears, added: “Terry Thomas was a giant of our co-operative movement and helped us to ensure our future. He was a great friend to me in Parliament and I learned so much from him. He always had time to listen and to guide and support. He was a modest man of great talent and achievements and the best of our Co-op.”
