Peter Ackroyd, a former director general of the National Wool Textile Export Corporation and president of the International Wool Textile Organisation (IWTO), has died aged 76.
Ackroyd spent much of his professional life championing the virtues of wool, mainly in senior positions with the National Wool Textile Export Corporation but also with the IWTO. Over the years he worked to strengthen relationships between farmers, manufacturers, fashion designers, retailers and government officials, while promoting wool as a natural, renewable and biodegradable fibre with an important role in a more sustainable future.
Career in textiles
Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, to Phyllis (nee Sykes) and her husband, Robert, who was managing director of Carter & Parker, the Guiseley-based woollen mill behind the Wendy Wools and Peter Pan brands, Ackroyd was educated at Woodhouse Grove school. He learned about textiles marketing on a Courtaulds industrial training scholarship from 1969 to 1972, followed by a year at Bradford Technical College studying the textiles trade and learning Italian.
He then worked for Courtaulds, concentrating on business development and international markets and representing the company's interests in France, becoming a fluent French speaker in the process. From 1974 he began working for the National Wool Textile Export Corporation in Bradford, starting as its marketing manager and rising to be director general in 1993, a role he held until the organisation closed in 2008.
International roles and legacy
By that time he had been made MBE in 2006 for services to the textiles industry, and had increasingly become involved in international wool-industry organisations and projects. He joined the executive committee of the IWTO in 2004, was elected president in 2011, serving until 2019, and was a board member until 2023 and then a special adviser until 2026.
His parallel work as a consultant led to his engagement as a global strategic adviser to the Australian Wool Innovation and the Woolmark Company from 2011 to 2026. He was chief operating officer of the Campaign for Wool, set up to educate consumers about the benefits of wool, from its inception in 2009, and became its chair in 2025.
A proud resident of Saltaire, Ackroyd was a passionate ambassador for Bradford and Yorkshire. In his later years he also ran his own textile consultancy and served as a senior adviser both to the Australian Wool Innovation and the Woolmark marketing organisations. He is survived by his partner, Beverley Craig.
