Renowned businessman Sir Peter Rigby has risen to global success through his pioneering work in IT - and now he's giving back to Merseyside through the establishment of a centre dedicated to entrepreneurship.
Sir Peter was born in 1943 and grew up in Crosby. He had a contented childhood but one which saw its share of hard times, especially when his father lost his sight and job at the age of 17.
Discussing the pivotal moment that steered him towards creating an international empire, : "When my father lost his job I decided to leave school after my O-Levels and get a job. I thought I could make some money for the family. I was lucky to work for a company in Liverpool in the early days of computing. I started on £6 a week."
His initial position taught him valuable IT skills such as programming, systems design, and sales, equipping him with the confidence by his thirties to start his own venture. He said: "I went to my bank manager and said I was going to go into business. I was married with two children, I'd had a good career in IT which gave me that grounding and I had saved £2,000. So I went in and asked for a loan."
However, his ambition met with resistance from his bank manager who insisted on securing the loan against his mortgage, to which Sir Peter emphatically responded, "I said absolutely not. I said I would do it on my own instead."
While Sir Peter's initial goal was to establish an IT firm, his savings of £2,000 were insufficient for such a venture. Instead, he launched a recruitment company which eventually expanded into Europe, reports .
The profits from this business enabled him to fund the creation of a full-fledged IT company, which rapidly adapted to the burgeoning tech revolution of the era. "I built a couple of mainframe computer bureaus, but when the PC came along in the early 80s, that was the thing that absolutely set IT on fire," Sir Peter elaborates.
"My take on that, because I had been used to selling big, complex computers, was to see the PC as a connected device, rather than just something that sat at home. So I sold to big corporations and set up a big business in IT."
That IT enterprise, SCC, is now Europe's leading independent IT service provider and forms the bedrock of the broader Rigby group, encompassing a boutique hotel division, a commercial property business and several regional º£½ÇÊÓƵ airports. At 81, Sir Peter Rigby is the founder and chairman of a multinational corporation valued at over £4 billion, employing 10,000 staff and operating in 20 countries globally.
In his leisure time, he takes pleasure in piloting his private helicopter - a pastime he could only have dreamt of as a young boy. .
Sir Peter has returned to his birthplace to support the next generation of business leaders. His charitable trust has donated £1 million to establish the Sir Peter Rigby Centre for Enterprise at the University of Liverpool.
The centre aims to enhance the employability of students, staff, and young people from the city through enterprise education and entrepreneurial skills training, with a goal of reaching 50,000 individuals within three years. Additionally, Sir Peter has provided student bursaries.
He explained: "The thing that brought me back to Liverpool is that a couple of years ago I was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Liverpool and made a couple of trips back, it really resonated with me. I had a happy childhood albeit very ordinary and quite tough in many ways, but this is a city of great character and great characters and coming back here really reminded me of my early years, so I was really happy to build an association with the city again and through the university, particularly to help young people.
"I do a lot of work with young people and particularly, because of my IT background, with digital skills. Today, frankly, you are very disadvantaged if you haven't got basic digital skills, so I am very keen to bring the digital economy alive at the lower end. Scousers are resilient people and when you go on your own you take lots of knocks and you need that resilience to see through your ideas and to develop them."
When asked for advice based on his years of success in business for young people, he shared: "You have got to work hard. There is no secret to success. Talk to any successful person and fundamentally it almost takes your life over. You have to be dedicated and driven. You need to have a vision, what do you want to do? Where do you want to go? It is like a life journey really. You have to do it in stages, you can't just go from A-Z, you have to grow in stages. You have to be prepared to take a chance.
"I am delighted to be working with the university. I believe the future is young people but it is tough today. One of the things I am very keen on is this digital divide. If you haven't got access to a device or an understanding of technology then you are really disadvantaged, how do you apply for a job? ".
Sir Peter expressed his concerns about the rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence, emphasising the need for youth education on the topic. He remarked: "AI has the capability of being used against society and being weaponised. Businesses will argue that it will take cost out, but what that will do in essence will make more demand on people to have digital skills, because the jobs that AI displaces are those where digital skills are deployed. It will certainly impact lives and along with that comes the concern you have of the manipulation of people's lives and invading people's privacy. People need to be educated on the dangers of this technology."
He also cautioned against the power of big companies, stating: "We have these big tech companies that almost see themselves as being above the law and bigger and stronger than governments. You must be conscious of giving out information. Data is what AI feeds off. One without the other doesn't work. When someone asks you for your personal details, you need to be very careful."
In response to Sir Peter's support and the opening of a new centre, Professor Tim Jones, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Liverpool, expressed gratitude: "We are incredibly grateful to Sir Peter for his generous gift to the University – and for the time and expertise he so willingly shares with us in his role as our Honorary President for Enterprise. It is greatly appreciated."
"We are in no doubt that the new Sir Peter Rigby Centre for Enterprise will be transformative. I am passionate about the role that entrepreneurship can and must play here at the University of Liverpool – for the benefit of our students and staff as well as for the regional and º£½ÇÊÓƵ economy."
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