One of the UK’s leading industrialists, John Browne spent 41 years at BP and now continues his focus on energy issues as Chair of BeyondNetZero. As Chair of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation, he oversees the global annual £500,000 prize for engineering.
He joined BP in 1966 and held a variety of exploration and production posts in Anchorage, New York, San Francisco, London, and Canada before becoming Group Treasurer in 1984. In 1989, he became Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BP Exploration based in London. In September 1991, he joined the Board of the British Petroleum Company plc and was appointed Group Chief Executive in June 1995. Following the merger of BP and Amoco, he became Group Chief Executive of the combined group in December 1998 and remained in this position until May 2007.
Lord Browne was appointed a Trustee of the Tate Gallery in August 2007 and Chair of the Trustees in January 2009. He chaired the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance, which published its report in October 2010, recommending that the cap on university tuition fees be raised to allow universities more control over their fee structure. He was appointed as the UK government's first Lead Non-Executive Director in June 2010, working with ministers to appoint non-executives to the board of each government department and to improve governance across Whitehall.
Lord Browne serves on the Boards of Directors of Cuadrilla Resources, Fairfield Energy, Pattern Energy Group Inc., and White Rose. He was Chair of the Advisory Board of Apax Partners LLC from 2006 to 2007. He was a Non-Executive Director of Goldman Sachs from 1999 to 2007; a Non-Executive Director of Intel Corporation from 1997 to 2006; a Trustee of the British Museum from 1995 to 2005; a member of the Supervisory Board of DaimlerChrysler AG from 1998 to 2001; and a Non-Executive Director of SmithKline Beecham from 1996 to 1999.
Lord Browne was voted ‘Most Admired CEO’ by Management Today from 1999 to 2002. He has degrees from Cambridge and Stanford universities and has been awarded 18 honorary degrees. His memoir, Beyond Business, was published in 2010, followed by Seven Elements That Have Changed The World in 2013 and The Glass Closet in 2014.
Lord Browne
- 1948 Born 20 February in Hamburg
- 1966 Following education at the King’s School, Ely, he joins BP as a university apprentice
- 1969 Graduates from the University of Cambridge with a first-class degree in physics
- 1989 Appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BP Exploration
- 1991 Joins the Board of the British Petroleum Company plc as Managing Director
- 1995 Becomes Group Chief Executive of BP
- 1998 Knighted for services to industry
- 1999 Awarded the Academy’s Prince Philip Medal for outstanding contribution to engineering
- 2001 Granted a life peerage as Baron Browne of Madingley
- 2006 Appointed President of the Royal Academy of Engineering
- 2007 Becomes partner of Riverstone
- 2010 Becomes government Lead Non-Executive Director
- 2011 Becomes Chair, Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Foundation