Lindsey Greig: Innovative publisher of trade periodicals and founder of the landmark legal website DataGuidance

Greig was quick to see that online publishing would be the best way forward

Greig: an entrepreneur with strong socialist values

Lindsey Cameron McNeil Greig was a pioneering publisher and conference organiser. Originally a publisher of print periodicals, such as The Lawyer, he was quick to see that online publishing would be the best way forward.

The Lawyer, launched in 1985, was a weekly magazine which dealt with issues relevant to the legal profession; contributing writers often came from top law firms around the world.

Greig started Cecile Park Publications in 1999, a company for providing, in his own words, "global, authoritative and incisive legal and regulatory information solutions in fast-growing business areas." His first print and online journal was called E-Commerce Law & Policy. He went on to publish periodicals in new areas of law, such as data protection, e-finance, e-health, doping in world sports, online gambling and cyber security.

As well as these journals, he also organised conferences and workshops for industry and legal professionals in many countries, delivering face-to-face communication and networking for specialists in many fields.

Data Protection Law & Policy was a monthly newsletter Greig began in 2004. This was a means of ensuring that businesses and public services could cope with a maze of regulatory and organisational rules governing privacy compliance. The point was to enable effective, well-regulated, and transparent use of data.

Greig launched DataGuidance in 2007, and it is now a leading tool for data protection and privacy compliance. Covering 162 countries and 218 jurisdictions, DataGuidance boasts the largest database of privacy legislation, official guidance and codes of practice in the world. The online website is constantly updated, and is enriched with in-depth content, written by a network of more than 250 international privacy experts. Among the subscribers are some of the world's best-known companies, such as American Express, BP, Deutsche Bank, Dyson, MasterCard and Western Union.

Greig also helped with the editing and publishing of The Future of Privacy, a book by his lawyer friend Eduardo Ustaran.

Greig was born in Worplesdon, Surrey on 17 November 1951, the youngest of five children. His father, C. McNeil Greig OBE MC, was the director general of the United Association for the Protection of Trade (UAPT), the UK's leading credit-reference agency.

Lindsey Greig attended the Ottershaw Boarding School and went on to get a BA in philosophy at Warwick University. It was here that he was exposed to socialist politics and protest. After leaving university he took a summer job at a Woking engineering factory, Con-Mech Ltd. He found that a group of Italian immigrants were working 12-15 hours a day in poor conditions. He got involved with union organising and was appointed a shop steward for the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (AUEW). The union sought recognition from Con-Mech, but was refused. Greig was fired, and the workers went on strike with union support and picketed the factory. Although the union was taken to court and fined for breaking newly introduced labour laws, there were national strikes of engineering and newspaper workers in support of the AUEW. The union finally withdrew their support – but Greig continued with the strike action, which was backed by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).

Greig returned to Warwick University to study economics and he stayed committed to the SWP for many years. He was involved in a counter-protest demonstration against a National Front march, which led to his arrest; he had to be bailed by his brother Ian.

One of his first jobs was driving a delivery van for restaurateurs the Roux brothers. He spoke excellent French, and in 1976 taught English as a foreign language in Paris.

His career in journalism began as a freelancer for the weekly newspaper Socialist Worker, and he became a full-time journalist in the late 1970s. He reported on several major UK industrial disputes, including the 1984 miners' strike. By the mid 1980s he was writing articles for a number of publications, including Accountancy Age and other Haymarket titles. An innovator and entrepreneur, Greig came to realise that there was a similar market opportunity for lawyers – which is how he came to launch The Lawyer.

In 1984 Greig, tall and handsome, married Hannah Solemani, a psychoanalyst, and they had two daughters: Rebecca, now a journalist and television presenter; and Phoebe, who is educated in mathematics and finance and works at Cecile Park Publications. Greig was a devoted and loving husband, father, son and brother.

He and his wife were great friends of mine. His list of entrepreneurial achievements, however impressive, cannot convey the qualities of character which distinguished him: his warmth, kindness, pleasantness, cheerfulness, curiosity, and enthusiasm. He became seriously ill in the last months of his life with complications of an aggressive cancer. He had full knowledge of what was happening to his body, but his good cheer and positive temperament never wavered. I will always treasure him for the wonderful person he was.

Morton Schatzman

Lindsey Cameron McNeil Greig, publisher: born Worplesdon, Surrey 17 November 1951; married 1984 Hannah Solemani (two daughters); died Crouch End, London 12 April 2015.