James Dyson

James Dyson was born on 2 May 1947 in Cromer, Norfolk, one of three children of Janet M. (née Bolton) and Alec William Dyson. He was named after his grandfather, James Dyson. His father died of prostate cancer when he was nine years old and he described his childhood home as 'penniless' after his father's death. He was nonetheless educated at Gresham's School, an independent boarding school in Holt, Norfolk, from 1956 to 1965, due to the headmaster agreeing to pay his school fees. At school he excelled at long-distance running, and said he learned determination from it.

Dyson spent a year, 1965–1966, at the Byam Shaw School of Art, choosing the school because of its excellent reputation under principal Maurice de Sausmarez's leadership. Dyson credits de Sausmarez's guidance and teaching with inspiring him to become a designer. In 2015 Dyson spoke at the opening of a retrospective exhibition of de Sausmarez's work at the University of Leeds, speaking of the great influence the artist and former principal had on him and his career.

He studied furniture and interior design at the Royal College of Art between 1966 and 1970, before moving into product design. It was while attending the Royal College of Art to study fine art that he transferred to industrial design, partly because of the tutorage of structural engineer Anthony Hunt.

Dyson married Deirdre Hindmarsh in 1968. They have two sons and a daughter.

In 1999, he acquired Domaine des Rabelles, an estate and winery near Villecroze and Tourtour, Var, France. In 2003, Dyson paid £15 million for Dodington Park, a 300-acre (1.2 km2) Georgian estate in South Gloucestershire close to Chipping Sodbury. He and his wife also own a house in Chelsea, London.

His vessel Nahlin is the largest British-flagged and -owned superyacht with an overall length of 91 metres (299 ft), and was ranked 36th in a 2013 survey of the world's 100 biggest yachts. He also owns two Gulfstream G650ER private jets registered G-VIOF and G-GSVI. He previously owned an older Gulfstream G650, registered G-ULFS and currently owns a AgustaWestland AW-139 helicopter.

Dyson is a lifelong fan of Bath Rugby and has frequently attended games at the Rec. The Dyson company have been the title sponsors of the club since 2014, with Bath Rugby being the first sports team officially backed by the firm. As a result of this, Dyson are the main brand on all club kit and are the naming rights holders of the East Stand at the Rec.

In July 2019, Dyson spent £43 million on a 21,108-square-foot (1,961.0 m2) triplex flat at the top of the Guoco Tower, the tallest building in Singapore. He sold the flat in October 2020 for £36 million, and in April 2021 it was reported that he had moved his place of residence back to the UK. Dyson has also invested heavily in buying agricultural land in Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, and Gloucestershire, and by 2014 was one of the biggest landowners in the UK.

Dyson is the beneficial owner of Weybourne Holdings Pte, a Singapore-based business that (as of 2023) owns 31 UK properties, worth at least £287 million.

Dyson set up the James Dyson Foundation in 2002 to support design and engineering education. It is a registered charity under English law and operates in the UK, US, and Japan. The foundation aims to inspire young people to study engineering and become engineers by encouraging students to think differently and to make mistakes. The foundation supports engineering education in schools and universities, as well as medical and scientific research in partnership with charities. It achieves this by funding resources such as the "Engineering Box", a box filled with activities for a school to use as a teaching aid.

In May 2014, the foundation announced an £8 million donation to create a technology hub at the University of Cambridge. The donation would also allow for a design and construction lab to be developed for undergraduate engineering students.

In March 2015, the foundation gave £12 million to Imperial College London to allow the purchase of a Post Office building in Exhibition Road from the Science Museum. Imperial College was to open the Dyson School of Design Engineering in this building, and teach a new four-year master's degree in design engineering.

Around 2021, the foundation gave £4 million towards the construction of a £27 million hub for cancer services at the Royal United Hospital, Bath, to be called the Dyson Cancer Centre. This followed a £500,000 donation to the Dyson Centre for Neonatal Care at the same hospital, which opened in 2011.

The foundation supports the work of young designers through the James Dyson Award, an international design award that "celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers".

Dyson is also a trustee of The James and Deirdre Dyson Trust, a separate charity through which he and his wife make personal donations in various fields. In June 2019, the charity donated £18.75 million to Dyson's old school, Gresham's, to build a new STEAM Education building, which was completed in 2021. In November 2023, the charity made a further donation of £35 million to Gresham's School to develop a prep school with a new building incorporating STEAM education facilities for pupils aged seven to 13.

Pro-Eurozone

In 1998, Dyson was one of the chairmen and chief executives of 20 FTSE 100 companies who signed a statement published in the Financial Times calling on the government for early British membership of the Eurozone. He claimed that failure to join the euro would lead to the destruction of the British manufacturing base. In February 2000 claiming that the strength of the pound was affecting his company's profits on exports to France and Germany, Dyson threatened to shift focus from his Malmesbury plant to a new plant set up in Malaysia because the government would not join the euro. Later in 2000 Dyson again threatened to shift production abroad. In February 2002, Dyson announced that production was being shifted to the Far East. In August 2003, the assembly of washing machines was also switched from Malmesbury to Malaysia.

Pro-Brexit

Dyson was one of the most prominent UK business leaders to publicly support Brexit before the referendum in June 2016. Since the referendum, Dyson stated that Britain should leave the EU Single Market and that this would "liberate" the economy and allow Britain to strike its own trade deals around the world. During 2016, 19% of Dyson Ltd exports went to EU countries, compared with 81% to non-EU countries. In 2017, Dyson suggested that the UK should leave the EU without an interim deal and that "uncertainty is an opportunity". Previously, in 2014, Dyson had said he would be voting to leave the European Union to avoid being "dominated and bullied by the Germans". In November 2017, Dyson was critical of the UK government Brexit negotiations and said "we should just walk away and they will come to us". After it became public in January 2019 that Dyson's company was to move its headquarters from Malmesbury to Singapore, he was accused of hypocrisy regarding his campaign for Brexit.

Allegations of copyright infringement

Dyson has several times accused Chinese spies and students of copying technological and scientific secrets from the UK through the planting of software bugs and by infiltrating British industries, institutions, and universities after they left. He also complained that China benefits from stealing foreign designs, flouting of product copyrights, and a two-speed patent system that discriminates against foreign firms with unreasonably longer times.

European Court of Justice

In November 2015, Dyson lost its case against EU energy labelling laws in the European General Court; however, a subsequent appeal in the European Court of Justice said that the previous ruling had "distorted the facts" and "erred in law".

Criticism of Rishi Sunak policies

Dyson criticised Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in January 2023 for what he called "ever higher tax bills" for corporations. That May, Dyson said that Sunak had a "scandalous neglect" of the science and technology sector.