Obituary: Sir Richard Giordano KBE
19th January 2023
CSI Trustee Sir Richard V. Giordano KBE was a renowned business leader who among many business and charitable interests, led a transformation of British corporate culture, created the BOC Challenge sailing race and was the original driving force behind the creation of Cicely Saunders International. He remained a CSI trustee until his recent death at the age of 88.
Born in the Bronx, New York, Giordano was the youngest son of Italian immigrants. After winning a scholarship to Harvard College and graduating from Columbia Law School he went on to have a long and distinguished business career in the USA and the UK. He served on the boards of Georgia-Pacific, Rio Tinto, Reuters, and Grand Metropolitan. And it was while at Grand Metropolitan that he met John McGrath, who was then its CEO.
CS International Chairman John McGrath writes: “I met Dick Giordano when we were at Grand Metropolitan together and I was coming to the end of my term as CEO. We discussed what I might do in the future and he suggested that I meet Dame Cicely Saunders. He got to know her in the late 1970s in New York City when he was raising $20m to build Calvary Hospice. The meeting was set up and as a result of that meeting we decided to establish a charity in her name to continue her work. So without Dick’s involvement I don’t think for one minute we would have set up the charity.”
In 1999, Giordano joined the board of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees from 2009 until 2013. In 2002, he was granted British citizenship, which he held with his US citizenship, and was appointed an additional Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the first American to be honoured in this way.
Professor Irene Higginson, Scientific Director of CS International, said: “It was such a privilege to work with Dick Giordano. He had a passion for improving palliative care, and his sharpness of mind, astute questions and focus on how to make things better, made pivotal differences to palliative and hospice care worldwide. This included getting CS International going with a Chairman, Trustees and the very first programme to improve the management of severe breathlessness, that causes suffering for 75 million people worldwide. He also supported the formation of the UK National Council for Hospice and Palliative Care, the growth of Calvary Hospice in New York and many other initiatives.”