Michael Orlando Weetman Pearson, 4th Viscount Cowdray, DL (born 17 June 1944)[1] of Cowdray Park in West Sussex, is a landowner in West Sussex with 16,500 acres (6,700 ha) and is a major shareholder of the FTSE 100 company Pearson plc, the construction, now publishing, company founded by his ancestor in the 19th century.
He attended Gordonstoun, a boarding school in Elgin, Moray, Scotland, after which he served the British Army for two years, worked as a financier in the City of London and briefly as a farmer.[citation needed] In the late 1960s he became a film producer, running Cupid Productions, a film production company.[3][6] He produced Sympathy for the Devil, a film starring The Rolling Stones and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and Vanishing Point in 1971. In 1985, he was listed in Debrett's Peerage as a resident of Le Schuylkill, a high-rise building in Monaco.[7] Later in the 1980s he returned to England. He was a director of the jewellers Theo Fennell Plc. He has served on the board of trustees of the Tibet House Trust for 20 years.[2][8]
In 1995 he inherited his 16,500-acre (6,700 ha) paternal estate at Cowdray Park, in West Sussex, purchased by his great-grandfather in 1909, now containing the mansion house known as Cowdray Park, a polo club, a golf club, a dairy herd, forestry, 330 houses, several farms and much of the town of Midhurst.[citation needed] In
and in 2011, he put the 16 bedroom mansion house up for sale via agents Knight Frank, at an asking price of £25 million, including two lakes, two swimming pools, six cottages, 12 flats, a bowling alley, cricket pitch, polo field,[9] but with only 110 acres (45 ha) of the estate. In 2017 having failed to find a buyer for the house, he took it off the market and drew up plans to convert the two wings into 7 short-leasehold luxury apartments with the reception areas to be hired out for conferences, corporate events and weddings.[5] He retains the surrounding 16,500-acre (6,700 ha)
Personal life and family
In 1970 by his girlfriend, Barbara Ray, he had a son.[4]
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