Michael Oglesby

Businessman and philanthropist

MICHAEL OGLESBY, who has died at 80, was a businessman and philanthropist who founded the Bruntwood property business, which owns and manages more than 100 office buildings across Yorkshire, the North West and Midlands.

It was a company he grew from modest beginnings in 1970 into one of the most successful in the country, with a portfolio worth more than £1bn and constituting around a fifth of the commercial office space in the centre of Manchester alone, as well as five large developments in central Leeds.

Mr Oglesby was also active in health, education and the arts, and was behind the establishment in 2000 of the Oglesby Family Trust, one of the largest of its kind in the region, having donated £16m to more than 300 charities engaged in medical research, social inequalities and other fields.

Born in Scunthorpe, he obtained a degree in building at Aston University, and spent his early working years in the construction industry. He laid the foundation of his office empire in a derelict former gas meter factory in Bolton. Written off as an eyesore, he saw it as an opportunity and set about raising the money to transform it.

But his interests were wider ranging. He was chairman of the steering board for the Manchester

Cancer Research Centre and a vice president of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, as well as a fellow of Chetham’s School of Music, leading the team building a new music school in Manchester. He was also an ambassador for the Woodland Trust and a past chairman of governors at the Royal Northern College of Music, amongst other roles. A strong believer in family values, he founded the Family Stability Network charity, with the aim of promoting changes in culture, attitudes, and behaviour that would reduce the numbers of family breakdowns. Awarded the CBE in 2011 for services to industry and charity, he served as both High Sheriff and Vice Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester. He is survived by his wife, Jean, and by children, Chris and Kate.