Chris Grigg


Christopher Montague Grigg is a British businessman, chief executive of The British Land Company plc, a British property development and investment company.

Early life

Grigg was educated at King Edward VI School, Southampton, and graduated from Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge with a first in Economics.
He grew up in Hampshire, with two younger brothers, one an advertising executive, the other a vicar.

Career

Grigg joined Morgan Grenfell as a graduate trainee in 1981. He joined Goldman Sachs in 1985, rising to partner, before he left in 2005 to become Treasurer of Barclays Bank, and chief executive of Barclays Commercial Bank from 1 February 2007 to November 2008. Grigg joined British Land as chief executive on 12 January 2009.
Although there has been some criticism of his decision to sell 50% of British Land's City of London Broadgate development to Blackstone Group, as well as 50% of the Meadowhall Centre, Sheffield, Grigg has stated his belief that this was the right decision in the long term: "We aspire to outperform the market. It's kind of hard to do that if your two largest assets have been underperformers."
In January 2012, he said that the City of London's skyline needs to become more like Manhattan to attract companies to the capital, and that office spaces need to be larger and more flexible.

Personal life

Grigg is married and lives in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, with his wife and five children.