A PORT man who has dedicated his professional life to international trade relations has been awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours.

Ian Gray — a former pupil of Greenock Academy — is co-chairman of the Egyptian British Business Council which was set up by the governments of both countries in 1998.

His wife, Karen, today told of her delight about the award.

He told the Telegraph: “The pride everyone in the family feels is genuine.

“Ian puts his heart and soul into everything he does and I admire that because it’s not often you see that.

“Another thing that makes us proud of Ian is how he always manages to earn the respect and loyalty of the people he works with, at home and abroad.

“It must be the Scot in him!”

Ian, 67 — who has a home in Oxfordshire — was also educated at Trinity College, Glenalmond, and Durham University prior to embarking on his career.

He was a regional director of Vodafone in 2010 and remained chairman of Vodafone Egypt until mid 2014 before resuming this role in October 2015.

Ian had already served on the board for more than 14 years, including time as CEO of the company and living in Cairo between 2002 and 2007.

Vodafone Egypt remains the leading technology operator in Egypt with more than 10,000 staff, 40 million mobile subscribers and a number of subsidiaries in outsourced web services.

Since becoming CEO of Vodafone Qatar in December 2015 — at a time of declining performance — the company’s results in the Gulf state have improved substantially.

Prior to his time with Vodafone, Ian was CEO of the FTSE listed companies Brown and Jackson PLC and later General Cable PLC.

For nearly 20 years prior to this, he held various roles in the Thorn EMI Group.

The Egyptian British Business Council which Ian co-chairs is a top level strategic body to facilitate trade and investment links between Egypt and the UK and he is chairman of the Egyptian British Chamber of Commerce whose main function is to support medium and smaller companies in both Egypt and UK achieve bilateral trade.

It is in recognition of his contribution to UK/Egypt trade relations that he has been awarded the OBE. 

Ian’s sister, Norma Anderson, said: “We are all extremely proud. This a a richly deserved honour.”