Крис Инграм: Британдық кәсіпкер және өнер жинаушысының өмірі мен мансабы

British art collector and businessman
the businessman

Chris Ingram (born 9 June 1943) is a British businessman, entrepreneur and art collector with strong benevolent links to Woking.

Chris Ingram is one of four children and the only son born to Thomas and Gladys Ingram. His father was a Police Inspector in the Surrey Constabulary which, at that time, involved many relocations around West Surrey. He attended Woking Grammar School; having obtained six O'Levels of mediocre grades, he left sixth form abruptly after only six months to become a messenger boy at a London advertising agency.

Ingram started his advertising career in 1960, aged 16 at Pictorial Publicity. Six months later, after the agency was taken over by John Pearce and Ronnie Dickenson, Collett Dickenson Pearce ("CPD") was formed. CPD rapidly became world famous for its creative advertising. The media department in which Ingram then worked as a junior was a service department to the main creative agency. Ingram then moved between several advertising agencies (including Greenlys where he met his wife, Janet). In 1964 he joined KMP, one of the hot agencies of the 1960s. The freedom and encouragement of the principals resulted in his becoming a board director aged 26 years. KMP was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1969 and subsequently embarked on a hasty acquisition spree. At Ingram's prompting, the by then group of ad agencies (KIMPHER) formed a stand alone media company, 'The Media Department', in 1972, which was to be the forerunner of the modern media agency, splitting for the first time, the media and creative functions of the full service advertising agency. The KIMPHER Group was badly hit by the three day week and Ingram left in 1976 to start Chris Ingram Associates (CIA). After a shaky start, when there was very limited demand for the concept of a specialist media agency, the company later gained traction and expanded rapidly through the 1980s. CIA floated on the Stock Exchange in 1989. A series of rapid acquisitions commenced in 1993 to create a European network of agencies reflecting the emerging 'Single Market'. During this period the idea of a stand alone media company became gradually accepted as the norm. The Financial Times((')) analysis in 2000 of the previous decade showed that CIA was the world's best performing advertising stock of the 1990s. Ingram was judged 'London Entrepreneur of the Year' in 2000 in the Ernst & Young awards and later, Business Services UK Winner. By now CIA (with a holding company, Tempus) was employing 2,600 people in 67 offices across 29 countries with a turnover of $3 billion. However, the company was not truly global and in 1998 all the major agencies had decided to join the trend of the separation of creative from media, resulting in the appearance of much larger competitors in the market. Meantime, WPP was progressively increasing its stake in the publicly quoted Tempus, and by 2001 it was approaching 25%. The board of Tempus took the covert decision to sell the company. After a period of courtship, Havas, which also had an incomplete global network, made a bid based on a multiple of 34 pre tax profits. A battle ensued between WPP and Havas which ended abruptly following the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Havas withdrew immediately, leaving WPP's bid as the only one. A series of historic appeals was made by WPP, who claimed a material adverse change (called 'a MAC Attack' in the Financial Times at that time). After two appeals to the Stock Exchange, WPP was forced to follow through with its bid, netting £432 million cash for Tempus shareholders on 6 November 2001.

Although not an alumnus, Ingram is closely involved with the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Faculty at London Business School where he is a major donor. Recently he has joined the Deloitte Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at The School. In its original guise as the Foundation for Entrepreneurial Management, Ingram was involved from the outset eventually served as Acting chairman. He provided the seed funding for a joint venture between the University of Arts and London Business School: The Centre for Creative Business. This was a HEFCE funded initiative to bring business skills to the creative industry. He served as chairman on this joint venture from 2007 to 2008 and was made an Honorary Fellow in 2007.

Ingram became chairman of his boyhood club Woking F. C. in 2002, saving the club from administration. He still continues, as chairman of the holding company, to try to secure Woking's long term financial stability through redevelopment of the ground.

Ingram started to collect art seriously in 2000 and soon after that he chose to specialise in Modern British Art. It was after the sale of Tempus to WPP on 6 November 2001, that he was able to rapidly boost his collection. The collection expanded into his office space at The Ingram Partnership (2003–2007) and when the company closed, the collection ended up in storage at Christies in Nine Elms. Coincidentally, Woking Borough Council asked him to help fund a new gallery and museum which prompted the idea to base the collection at a public place for the public's benefit. The new gallery was named The Lightbox which won the Art Fund prize in 2008 and now houses the majority of the 450 piece Ingram Collection with a regular programme of free exhibitions. Ingram is keen that as many people as possible enjoy the collection and encourages an active loan programme, the key pieces of sculpture in The Ingram Collection were exhibited at Sotheby's in January 2011. A further 17 pieces were also loaned to the Royal College of Arts for their 175th Anniversary Show in October 2012. The collection is now actively used in the community, helping schools, prisons and mental health organisations.