He was educated at Radley College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he read natural sciences.
Inspired by the work of Norbert Wiener, he wrote Cybernetics, Communication and Control in the 1960s, a handbook of management technology.
He could speak Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, and Romanian and Swedish in addition to his native English, and was president of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting in 1996.
He became master of the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers in 1995, emulating his great-grandfather, Sir James Whitehead, 1st Baronet (who was also a Lord Mayor of London).
He was also a trustee of the Tyndale Society, and a church warden at St Mary Abchurch, in the City of London.