George Jefferson

Sir George Rowland Jefferson (26 March 1921 – 1 September 2012) was a British aeronautical engineer and businessman. He served as the first chairman of British Telecom (BT), and was largely responsible for its privatisation in 1984.

Early life Jefferson was born in London in 1921. His father was an electrical engineer. He saw through the company's privatisation. There was widespread hostility against its privatisation. This first privatisation of a British utility would mostly lay the ground for the subsequent privatisations of the 1980s; he largely made BT's privatisation take place. Jefferson retired in 1987.

Personal life He married in Irene Brown 1943, having three sons; his first wife died in 1998. He remarried, in 1999, to Bridget Anne Riley. He received the CBE in the 1969 New Year Honours and was knighted in the 1981 New Year Honours. He later moved to Perth, Western Australia, but lived in the Republic of Ireland at the end of his life. He died from heart failure and complications of Alzheimer's disease at a care home in Longford on 1 September 2012, aged 91.