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(Charles Guy) Rodney Leach, Baron Leach of Fairford (1 June 1934 – 12 June 2016) was a British businessman and a Conservative member of the House of Lords.
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Early life and education
The son of Charles Harold Leach and Nora Eunice Ashworth, he was educated at Harrow School in Middlesex before attending Balliol College, Oxford.
Business and political career
Leach was Deputy Chairman of Jardine Lloyd Thompson Plc, a director of Rothschild Continuation AG and of various listed Jardine Matheson Group companies.
He was created a life peer on 6 June 2006 taking the title Baron Leach of Fairford, of Fairford in the County of Gloucestershire.
Leach served as chairman of Open Europe, an influential think-tank based in London and Brussels and with a partner organisation in Berlin. calling for fundamental reform of the European Union. He spoke in the House of Lords against what he called 'alarmism' over climate change.
Leach was the chairman of the No2AV campaign, which opposed a change in the British electoral system away from first-past-the-post voting during the United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum, 2011.
Marriages
Leach was married twice. His first marriage was to Felicity Ballantyne in 1963, with the couple divorcing in 1989. His second marriage was to Jessica Violet Gwynne in 1993.
Lord Leach had two sons and three daughters from his first marriage.