Sir George Buckley to chair FTSE 100 engineer Smiths Group

Sir George Buckley, the British industrialist who until last year headed the US conglomerate 3M, will return to the UK corporate spotlight as the new chairman of FTSE 100 engineer Smiths Group.

It’s a return to corporate life in Britain for Buckley, 66, who was obliged to retire as chair and chief executive of Post-it maker 3M last year after his 65th birthday.

He will replace Donald Brydon, who is also chairman of Sage Group, the FTSE 100 software company, and Royal Mail, in November. Brydon was paid £305,000 last year.

Buckley, who has lived in the US since 1993, grew up in Sheffield and was abandoned by his parents as a baby. He ended up in the care of his grandmother’s lodger; health problems required him to attend a school for disabled children, which he left aged 15 with no qualifications. But he enrolled himself at a further education college, then university, and eventually earned a doctorate in engineering and worked his way up British Rail before moving to the US.

He holds non-executive positions at Hitachi and PepsiCo, and is the chairman of Mayfair private-equity house Arle Capital.