On Friday 13 June 2014, the Saïd Business School’s new building was formally named “The Thatcher Business Education Centre” by the Prime Minister, The Rt Hon. David Cameron MP. In his words of greeting to the Prime Minister, Mr Saïd described his motivation for naming the education centre:
“I have been asked on many occasion why I wanted to name this centre after Lady Thatcher. I did so for the School, for the benefit of the School. It wasn’t because I had tremendous respect and admiration for Lady Thatcher. Not even because she was a great Prime Minister and Britain’s first and only female Prime Minister. But because she created a new and dynamic enterprise culture in which business could flourish. And like Lady Thatcher, this school believes in business and in entrepreneurship. It believes in being at the cutting edge, it believes in being the best. And I couldn’t think of anything better to show how the Saïd School means business.”
Mr Cameron also spoke of the relevance of Baroness Thatcher’s name being associated with Oxford University’s business school, and of the vital inter-relationship between Government and Business. For the full text of the Prime Minister’s speech click here. Dean of the Said Business School, Professor Peter Tufano, reflected on Baroness Thatcher’s views on leadership and the role of the Said Business School in developing effective and principled business leaders and in contributing to the prosperity of society.