Alan Edward Higgs was a businessman who became a multimillionaire mainly from his house building business in Coventry , as well as from other businesses in Birmingham , England . He died in 1979, and because he thought that inherited wealth did more harm than good, he made provision for a charity to be created after his death to help deprived children from Coventry and nearby localities.
7-470: The Alan Edward Higgs Charity (sometimes incorrectly called the Alan Higgs Trust) benefited from Higgs's entire estate of approximately £26 million. It was set up specifically to help deprived children from Coventry and within 25 miles of Coventry. Higgs's son Derek Higgs , who was knighted in 2004, and his daughter became the trustees. The charity has given millions of pounds to good causes over
14-550: A philanthropist is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Derek Higgs Sir Derek Alan Higgs (3 April 1944 – 28 April 2008) was an English businessman and merchant banker. He was knighted in 2004. His father, Alan Higgs , was a multimillionaire through property businesses in the Midlands. Sir Derek was born in Birmingham , Warwickshire and was educated at Solihull School , and in 1963 he went to
21-632: The University of Bristol and graduated in Economics and Accounting in 1966. After graduating from the University of Bristol in 1966, Sir Derek joined Price Waterhouse , a large accountancy firm, and after training he qualified as a Chartered Accountant . In 1969 he became a corporate finance executive at Baring Brothers , a merchant bank. He moved-on and joined S. G. Warburg & Co. in 1972 and continued his career in merchant banking. He
28-597: The Alan Higgs Trust) was set up, and Sir Derek and his sister became the trustees. In January 2008 he also became one of the trustees of the Scott Trust , a British non-profit organisation which owns the Guardian Media Group . He has been on the Board of Trustees of The Architecture Foundation . Sir Derek married Julia Arguile in 1970 and they had two sons and one daughter. He died unexpectedly owing to
35-593: The chairman of the Alliance & Leicester bank and worked there through difficult times, which were partly caused by the credit crunch that took effect during 2007 in Britain. His father, Alan, died in 1979. As he felt inherited wealth did more harm than good, Alan Higgs left his entire fortune to a charity to be created after his death to help deprived children from Coventry and nearby localities. The Alan Edward Higgs Charity (also sometimes incorrectly called
42-463: The years. It gave the money to build The Alan Higgs Centre , a leisure centre in southeast Coventry, and partly owned the Ricoh Arena . This English business-related biographical article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This biographical article about a United Kingdom activist is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This biographical article about
49-600: Was also a board member of several companies including Prudential , British Land , and Coventry City Football Club . In 2002 the British Labour Government commissioned Sir Derek to chair the Review of the role and effectiveness of non-executive directors . The report, widely known as the "Higgs review" or "Higgs report", was published on 20 January 2003 and many of its recommendations for large companies have been implemented. In October 2005 he became
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