Robert Worcester

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Sir Robert Worcester, KBE, DL born December 21, 1933, is the founder of the MORI polling and research organisation, and a member and contributor to many voluntary organisations. He is a well known figure in British public opinion research and political circles and as a media commentator, especially about voting intentions in elections. Following the sale of MORI to French research company, Ipsos, in October 2005, he became chairman of the Ipsos Public Affairs Research Advisory Board and an International Director of the Ipsos Group.

A Kansas City native, Sir Robert graduated from the University of Kansas in 1955, and worked for a time with management consultants McKinsey & Company. In 1965, he worked for Opinion Research Corporation as Controller and Assistant to the Chairman, before coming to Britain in 1969 to found Market & Opinion Research International, usually known as MORI, a joint-venture of ORC and National Opinion Polls, becoming the principal owner four years later.

He is a Governor of the English-Speaking Union, a Trustee of the Magna Carta Trust, and a Governor of the Ditchley Foundation. He was also a member of the Fulbright Commission.

He was President of ENCAMS (Keep Britain Tidy), a Vice President of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts, of the United Nations Association and of the European Atlantic Group. Sir Robert is a Trustee of Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. He is a Freeman of the City of London and, as Chairman of the Pilgrims Society, currently co-chairs the Jamestown 2007 Commemoration British Committee.

Sir Robert is a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Kent and a Kent County Council appointed Kent Ambassador. He is a Non-Executive Director of Kent Messenger Group and is Chairman of Maidstone Radio, CTR 105.4 fm, and was a Non-Executive Director of the Medway Maritime Hospital NHS Trust until 2004. He is a Member of the Advisory Councils of the National Consumer Council, the Institute for Business Ethics and Forum for the Future.

He was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2004 in recognition of the “outstanding services rendered to political, social and economic research and for contribution to government policy and programmes”. He took British citizenship later that year, and in 2005 his knighthood was made substantive (allowing him to use the title "Sir").

He and his wife, Margaret, Lady Worcester, live at the 13th century Allington Castle, on the River Medway in Kent, where Sir Robert is also one of Her Majesty's Deputy Lieutenants. He has two sons, Kenton and Lawrence.

Sir Robert was appointed as Chancellor of the University of Kent on 13 July 2006. He took up his new role on 1 August 2006, succeeding Sir Crispin Tickell who retired after 10 years as the University’s Chancellor.

He has well established links with the University of Kent as a member of Council and former Chair of the Finance & Resources Committee. He is also an Honorary Professor of Politics at Kent, a Governor and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an Honorary Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Warwick University.

He holds five honorary doctorates and is an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics and Political Science.