Michael Oglesby, the founder of Manchester property group Bruntwood, has died.
The businessman - who's company owns around a fifth of Manchester city centre's office space - passed away peacefully surrounded by his close family.
He is survived by his wife Jean and children Chris and Kate.
Mr Oglesby leaves a lasting legacy of business and philanthropic achievements having founded Bruntwood in 1970 and built it into one of the UK’s most successful property businesses.
Born in 1939 in Scunthorpe and after receiving a degree in building at Aston University, he spent his formative working years in the construction industry before moving to Manchester in 1970.
Over a 40 year period he grew Bruntwood from modest beginnings to becoming one of the leading commercial property owners in the region.
The group owns more than 120 buildings in Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Liverpool, Leeds and Birmingham, comprising approximately 8.8msq ft with a value in excess of £1bn.
In Manchester city centre, Bruntwood owns approximately 20 per cent of the commercial office space.
He was married for more than 50 years and lived in Bowdon.
In 2000 he established the Oglesby Charitable Trust (OCT) with his wife Jean.
His son Chris succeeded him as CEO of Bruntwood in 1998 and his daughter Kate works in the business and has recently taken over as chair of the.
A strong believer in both personal and business philanthropy, since 1999, Mr Oglesby devoted the majority of his time to a broad portfolio of activities which cover the arts, civic roles, health and education.
It supports a variety of organisations in education, medical research, the arts and social inequalities and has become one of the North’s major charitable giving organisations.
To date it has donated in excess of £16m to over 300 charities.
Mr Oglesby served as chairman of the steering board for the Manchester Cancer Research Centre and sat on the Manchester LEP board and the global leadership board for the University of Manchester.
He was a vice president of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and, as a Feoffee of Chetham’s School of Music, leading the team responsible for building the new School of Music in Manchester.
A past chairman of the board of governors of the Royal Northern College of Music, MIDAS (responsible for Inward Investment in Manchester) and the Carol Concert Committee of the CLIC Sargent Children’s Cancer Charity.
He also sat on the board of the North West Business Leadership Team and the High Sheriff’s Police Trust.
