Papers of Sir George Sayers Bain (b.1939), university administrator and industrial...

Papers relating to arbitration between employers and employees and to research about trade unions, industrial relations, low pay and other issues; autobiography and speeches

Bain was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on 24 February 1939, the son of George Alexander Bain, a skilled manual worker at the Canadian Pacific Railway, and his wife Margaret Ioleen Bain (née Bamford).

After attending state schools in Winnipeg, he entered the University of Manitoba in 1956, studying double honours economic and political science, and graduated with BA (Hons) in 1961 and MA in 1964. From 1962 to 1963, he was a lecturer in economics at the university.

While at the University of Manitoba, he joined the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve as an officer cadet and served in various ships and establishments over a six-year period, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant in 1963. He was also an active member of the New Democratic Party, Canada?s social-democratic party, and its predecessor, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and was President of the Manitoba NDP in 1962-63.

A Commonwealth Scholarship took him to Pembroke College, Oxford in 1963 and to Nuffield College in 1964, where he studied industrial relations and obtained his DPhil in 1968. He was a research fellow at Nuffield College in 1966-69 and the Frank Thomas professor of industrial relations at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in 1969-70. He gave up his chair to become deputy director of the Industrial Relations Research Unit and became director of the Unit in 1974, holding the post until 1981. In 1979 he was appointed to the Pressed Steel Fisher chair of industrial relations. In 1983 he also became chairman of the School of Industrial and Business Studies which was transformed into Warwick Business School. In 1989 he was appointed principal of the London Business School and in 1998 he became vice-chancellor of the Queen's University of Belfast.

He served as secretary of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association, 1971-1974, chairman of the Council of the Conference of University Management Schools, 1987-1990, executive vice-president of the European Foundation for Management Development, 1991-1995, deputy chairman of Co-operation Ireland GB, 1996-1997, and president of the Involvement and Participation Association, 2002-2006. He was also a member of the Mechanical Engineering Economic Development Committee of the National Economic Development Office (NEDO), 1974-1976, the (Bullock) Committee of Inquiry on Industrial Democracy, 1975-1976, the Council of the Economic and Social Research Council, 1986-1991, the National Forum for Management Education and Development, 1987-1990, the Board of Trustees of the European Foundation for Management Development, 1990-1996, the International Affairs Committee, 1990-1992, and Board of Directors, 1992-1994, of the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business, the Council of the Foundation for Management Education, 1991-1995, the Council of the Institute of Management (formerly British Institute of Management), 1991-1993, the Senior Salaries Review Body, 1993-1996, the International Council of the American Management Association, 1993-1995, the Foundation for Canadian Studies in the UK, 1993-2001, 2004-2006, the Executive Committee of Co-operation Ireland GB, 1994-1997, the Board of Directors of the Graduate Management Admission Council, 1996-1997, the Board of Co-operation Ireland, 1998-2004, and the Education Honours Committee from 2005.

He also engaged extensively in public service. He was Chairman of the Low Pay Commission, which introduced the National Minimum Wage in 1999; the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund, a charity offering support to victims of ?the Troubles?; the Work and Parents Taskforce, which underpinned legislation on work-life balance and flexible working; and the Independent Review of the Fire Service, which provided the basis for fundamental reform in this sector. In Northern Ireland he chaired the Legal Services Review Group, which set out a new framework for regulating the legal professions; the Independent Strategic Review of Education, which put forward a new approach for the strategic planning and organisation of the schools? estate; and the Independent Review of Policy on the Location of Public Sector Jobs, which advanced proposals for relocating public sector jobs from Belfast to other areas within Northern Ireland. In 2013-14 he chaired the Resolution Foundation?s Commission on the Future of the National Minimum Wage and the Low Pay Commission.

He received several prizes and honours, including twelve honorary doctorates. He was knighted by the Queen in 2001.

Bain married Carol Lynn Ogden White in 1962. They divorced in 1987 and he married Frances Gwynneth Rigby in 1988. He has one son and one daughter by his first marriage.