Background
The son of Charles and Hylda Wolfson, he was educated at Clifton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in economics and law in 1956.
The son of Charles and Hylda Wolfson, he was educated at Clifton College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in economics and law in 1956.
He was further educated in Stanford University, California, where he received a Master of Business Administration in 1959.
Wolfson was director of Great Universal Stores from 1973 to 1978 and from 1993 to 2000, and chairman from 1996 to 2000. He was chairman of the Alexon Group plc from 1982 to 1986, of Next plc from 1990 to 1998, of GUS from 1996 to 2000, and of William Baird from 2002 to 2003. In 2001, Wolfson was non-executive director of Fibernet, and has been chairman since 2002.
Foreign Compco, he was chairman from 1995 to 2003.
Knighted in 1984, he was created a life peer with the title Baron Wolfson of Sunningdale, of Trevose in the County of Cornwall on 26 March 1991. One of those sons, Simon, followed in his footsteps both as head of Next and as a Conservative life peer, having been created Baron Wolfson of Aspley Guise.