John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
The Lord Browne of Madingley
|
|
|---|---|
Official portrait, 2019
|
|
| Chief Executive Officer of BP | |
| In office 1995–2007 |
|
| Preceded by | David Simon |
| Succeeded by | Tony Hayward |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Edmund John Phillip Browne
20 February 1948 Hamburg, Germany |
| Political party | None (crossbench) |
| Education | The King's School, Ely |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Executive Chairman of L1 Energy, Past President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Author, Member of the House of Lords |
Edmund John Phillip Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley (born 20 February 1948), is a British businessman. He is well-known for being the chief executive (CEO) of the energy company BP from 1995 to 2007. This time was seen as a "golden period" for BP, with lots of growth.
Lord Browne was praised for helping BP merge with other big companies like Amoco and ARCO. He also helped BP get access to Russian oil by creating TNK-BP. People called him the "Sun King" because of his leadership style. He was also recognized for changing how the oil and gas industry thought about climate change. He even started a new business within BP focused on renewable energy. He left BP in May 2007.
He has held many important roles since then. He was the president of the Royal Academy of Engineering and served on the boards of major companies like Goldman Sachs. Since 2001, he has been a member of the House of Lords, which is part of the UK Parliament.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Edmund Browne was born on February 20, 1948, in Hamburg, Germany. His father worked for an oil company that later became British Petroleum (BP). His mother, Paula, was a Hungarian Jewish person who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp during The Holocaust. Many of her family members died there.
Browne went to school at King's Ely. He then studied physics at St John's College, Cambridge, where he earned a top degree. He also has a master's degree in business from Stanford University in California.
Career at BP
Browne joined BP as an apprentice in 1966, even while he was still at university. His father suggested he join the company. He stayed with BP for his entire career.
From 1969 to 1983, he worked in different roles related to finding and producing oil and gas. He worked in places like Alaska, New York, London, and Canada. By 1984, he became the company's treasurer. He continued to rise through the ranks, taking on more senior roles in the US and London. In 1991, he joined BP's main board of directors.
He became the chief executive of BP on June 10, 1995. This happened after the British government sold its last shares in the company. After BP merged with Amoco, he became the chief executive of the combined company in 1998. He held this position until May 1, 2007. He was one of the highest-paid executives in the UK during this time.
From 1997, Browne worked to change BP's image. The company started using the slogan "Beyond Petroleum" to link its name with green issues. Browne believed that companies should meet today's energy needs without harming the environment too much. He also wanted to develop future, cleaner energy sources. He promised that BP would reduce its own CO2 emissions by 10% by 2010. BP actually reached this goal nine years early!
In 2005, there was a serious explosion at BP's Texas City plant. Fifteen workers died and more than 170 were injured. An investigation found that BP had not followed all health and safety rules. The company had to pay fines and awards because of this.
Leaving BP
In July 2006, it was announced that Browne would step down as BP's chief executive in December 2008. However, he resigned earlier, on May 1, 2007. The chairman of BP, Peter Sutherland, said that claims about company resources being misused were "unfounded or insubstantive."
Chairman of Cuadrilla
In the early 2010s, Browne was the Chairman of Cuadrilla Resources. This company is known for fracking in the UK. Fracking is a way to get natural gas or oil from deep underground rocks. He was also a managing partner at Riverstone Holdings, a company that invested in Cuadrilla.
Browne left Cuadrilla in 2015. He became the executive chairman of L1 Energy, an oil and gas company. This company is supported by a Russian billionaire named Mikhail Fridman. In 2019, Browne said that "fracking in the UK doesn’t make much sense." He felt it was a test to see if it worked, and that the UK might not need to do it.
Becoming a Lord and Other Activities
Lord Browne has held many important positions. He was the president of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2006 to 2011. In 2006, he was also elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a very old and respected scientific group.
In 1998, Queen Elizabeth II made him a knight. In 2001, he was named one of the "people's peers" by a special committee. This meant he became Baron Browne of Madingley and joined the House of Lords. In the House of Lords, he sits as a "crossbencher," meaning he doesn't belong to a specific political party.
He has also been involved in the arts. He became a trustee of the Tate Gallery in 2007 and its chairman in 2009. In 2009, he led an independent review into university tuition fees in the UK. This review gave its report in October 2010. In 2010, he was also appointed by the government to help recruit business leaders for government departments.
Lord Browne is currently chairman of the advisory board at Stanhope Capital. He also chairs the international advisory board of the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University. He is chairman of the trustees of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. He also chairs the Francis Crick Institute, a major biomedical research center. He is involved with the Donmar Warehouse Theatre and the Courtauld Institute of Art. He is also a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust.
He sits on the boards of IHS Markit and SparkCognition. He is also an advisor for several technology companies. From 2015 to 2020, he was the non-executive chairman of Huawei UK.
Lord Browne founded and chairs the John Browne Charitable Trust. This trust helps people with great potential, especially those from backgrounds that are not often represented. The trust has given out over £2 million in the last 20 years.
In 2021, Browne joined General Atlantic as a senior advisor. He also co-founded and chairs BeyondNetZero. This is a new company that invests in businesses finding solutions to climate change.
From 2015 to 2021, Browne was the executive chairman of L1 Energy. This company is co-owned by the Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman. In 2017, Browne helped create a new company called Wintershall Dea by merging two oil and gas businesses. He now chairs the supervisory board of Wintershall Dea.
Until 2015, Browne was the UK Government's lead non-executive director. In this role, he worked with government ministers to appoint business experts to government boards. In April 2021, Browne was appointed co-Chairman of the Prime Minister's Council on Science and Technology.
The Browne Review
On October 12, 2010, a report led by Lord Browne was published. It was called Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education. The main idea of the report was to remove the limit on how much universities could charge for tuition fees. This would allow universities to decide their own fees.
Personal Life
Lord Browne of Madingley enjoys collecting 17th and 18th-century Italian books. He also likes pre-Columbian art, which is art from before Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas. His other interests include contemporary art, music, opera, and theatre.
He lives in Chelsea, a part of London. His home was designed by the British furniture and interiors designer Tim Gosling.
Arms
  |
|
