John Fairclough

Sir John Whitaker Fairclough (born August 23, 1930 - June 5, 2003 ) was a British computer scientist .

Life

After attending school, Fairclough studied technology at the University of Manchester and, after completing his studies, joined the electrical engineering company Ferranti , for which he worked in the USA , where he developed and sold computer components. On his return to Britain he was 1,958 employees in the laboratory of IBM in Hursley, where his work on the development of micro-program memory led a major technology component of the highly successful mainframe System / 360 IBM. Fairclough later led the development of the IBM Model 40, the first model from the System / 360 available from 1965.

In 1983 he became chairman of the laboratories of IBM in Great Britain and was also chief scientific advisor to the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from 1986 to 1990 until he retired in 1990 .

In 1990 he became a member of the board of directors of the investment bank N M Rothschild & Sons and, as the director of the venture capital department there, was instrumental in the start-up financing of new companies.

For his scientific merits, he was also raised to the personal nobility status in 1990 as a Knight Bachelor and from then on carried the title "Sir". Most recently he was President of the British Computer Society from 1997 to 1998 .

Web links and sources

• Chambers Biographical Dictionary , Edinburgh 2002, ISBN 0550 10051 2 , pp. 509 f.
• THE GUARDIAN: Sir John Fairclough - Thatcher adviser who reformed the funding of scientific research (June 11, 2003)