‘Black Wednesday was a pretty small crisis’
BILLIONAIRE David Ross has been appointed chairman of the National Portrait Gallery with a brief to boost its credentials as the world’s leading centre for portraiture through a £35 million scheme.
Ross, who co-founded Carphone Warehouse, said his focus will be on delivering the Inspiring People project.
This will involve changing the display of its collection across all its galleries, as well as an extensive refurbishment.
It involves raising £35 million but there is already a £9.4 million donation from the National Lottery.
Ross said: ‘The National Portrait Gallery is a gem of a place. The Inspiring People project is a combination of physical activity and fostering an intellectual outlook to ensure we remain the most successful global centre for portraiture.’
He will be chairman for four years, with the possibility of staying on for a further four.
The 52-year-old believes in applying business disciplines to charities and the arts. He said: ‘Galleries and museums are under pressure as a result of freezing contributions from the Government and that means they have to become more commercial to balance their books, but that has to be done in a sensitive way.’
Ross has contributed extensively to charities through his own foundation. This has included £11.3 million to the David Ross Educational Trust, which has more than 30 academy schools in Yorkshire and the East Midlands.
He said: ‘The first one was in Grimsby, where my family are from. I went round a local school and thought, “Surely we can do better than this.”
‘We want to make a difference to children’s ambitions by giving them access to an education of the highest order and that means employers will come to areas like Grimsby which have seen traditional industries decline.
‘If you look at some of the most successful academies, like the Ark schools and Harris academies in London, they are being run like businesses, not like charities. There is a standardisation of approach which means every child gets the most appropriate education.
‘We focus on the part of the country where I’m from and areas that do not find it easy to raise public funds – Grimsby, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.’
Ross, who backed Brexit, noted that many of these areas had voted Leave. ‘They felt they hadn’t got much to lose, which I think the London establishment didn’t understand. I do think we’re making hard work of Brexit and we knew it was going to be tough. But that does not mean we cannot get there,’ he said.