Richard Cousins

Richard John Cousins (29 March 1959 – 31 December 2017) was a British businessman, and the chief executive officer of the world's largest foodservice company, the Compass Group, based in Chertsey, Surrey.

Early life Richard Cousins was born on 29 March 1959 in Leeds. He was the son of Marian and Philip Cousins. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Sheffield in 1980, followed by a master's degree in operational research from Lancaster University Management School. He went on to be managing director of Abertay Paper Sacks in 1996, President and CEO of Westroc Inc in February 1998 and Group chief executive of BPB in April 2000.

Cousins joined Compass in May 2006 as CEO. in 2016 he placed 17. He is succeeded as CEO of Compass by Dominic Blakemore. Originally planned for 1 April 2018, the succession was brought forward to 1 January 2018.

Personal life Cousins married Caroline Thorpe in 1982; she died of cancer in 2015. Their two sons were William and Edward, both of whom died with their father. and Tooting, South London. The couple had previously lived at Wellington, Shropshire late in the 1980s, where Cousins was a player in the Cricket Club, of which he remained for some time chairman of the club committee.

Death

Cousins was killed on 31 December 2017 when the light aircraft he was on crashed into the Hawkesbury River in Australia near Cowan, north of Sydney. His two sons, William Cousins (25) and Edward Cousins (23), his fiancée Emma Bowden (48) and her daughter Heather Bowden-Page (11) as well as pilot Gareth Morgan, were also killed in the accident. Emma Bowden was the daughter of Gerald Bowden, the former Conservative Member of Parliament for Dulwich. Cousins, a keen cricket fan, was to attend the Fifth Test of the Ashes series in Sydney with his two sons; the seats were left empty.

A year before his death, Cousins changed his will to include a "common tragedy clause", so that if he and his children were to die at the same time, the bulk of his fortune would go to charity. This resulted in the charity Oxfam receiving a £41 million bequest from his estate.