Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge

It is with great sadness that I have learned of the passing of Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge (obituary, 7 July), writes Roger Haywood. Colin and I took posts with The Chartered Institute of Marketing at the same time, Colin as president and myself as chairman. I hoped for some good advice and support from him but he excelled my expectations in every way. He was not just a perceptive listener and wise adviser, he had a creative mind that saw more than one solution to every issue; some of these were unexpected but proved to be extremely effective.

During my year in office, we became close colleagues as he had great belief in the educational and training work of the Institute; I was surprised at just how accessible he proved to be. He would attend meetings that I requested, even if it sometimes meant at odd hours and places.

When we were planning a significant change or tackling a particularly knotty problem he would pull together the vice-presidents – all of them distinguished "captains of industry", as the phrase was at the time. This gave us a dozen or so great business brains around the table to add to the expertise of our board members and senior staff.

Colin and the vice-presidents would also try to support our work with their involvement in Institute events, government liaison, national business meetings, conferences and so on. Quite clearly his heart was in the job and it was important to him that the Institute should grow and succeed.

I felt that the vice-presidents were united in their support due to Colin's drive and leadership, which he demonstrated over the whole period of his presidency. Highly practical in all his recommendations and a great friend to me, succeeding chairmen and to our Institute, he will be dearly missed.