Tony Pidgley

Anthony Pidgley was born in 1947 in Surrey to a single mother, and then adopted from Barnardos. He spent his early life living in a disused railway carriage. He worked with his parents cutting down trees and selling the logs.

Pidgley left home in 1962 and founded a haulage business which he expanded until it had 40 lorries and then sold it to Crest Nicholson in 1968. He then worked for Crest Nicholson for seven years. In 1976, he established Berkeley Group Holdings which he expanded until it was one of the UK's largest housebuilders. Berkeley specialises in executive style homes. He has since seen off a bid for his business from his son.

In 2016 Bloomberg referenced research from the previous year that had reported Tony Pidgley to be the second highest paid CEO of the FTSE 100 behind Martin Sorrell, with a pay packet of £23.3 million.

He married twice, most recently to Sarah Hill, and had two children by each marriage. They resided in a sixteenth-century house set in 100 acres (0.40 km2) in Windsor. Pidgley donated more than £2,000 to the Conservative Party, while his wife Sarah donated £35,000 to the Conservative Party between 2017 and 2020. He died on 26 June 2020, after suffering a stroke.