Tom McKillop facts for kids
Sir Thomas Fulton Wilson McKillop (born 19 March 1943) is a Scottish chemist and a very important business leader. He was the boss, or Chief Executive Officer (CEO), of AstraZeneca, a huge company that makes medicines, from 1999 to 2006. After that, he became the chairman of the RBS Group, a big bank, from 2006 to 2008. He is also a respected member of the Royal Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, which are groups for top scientists.
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Early Life and Education
Sir Tom McKillop was born in a small village called Dreghorn in Scotland. He went to school at Irvine Royal Academy. Then, he studied chemistry at the University of Glasgow, where he earned both his first degree and a PhD. A PhD means he did advanced research in chemistry.
After his studies, he worked in Paris for a short time. In 1969, he joined a company called Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). He worked in their labs, focusing on plastics and other materials.
Moving into Medicine
In 1975, Sir Tom moved to the part of ICI that made medicines. He held many different jobs in research there. By 1989, he was in charge of all research, development, and production for ICI around the world.
Leading AstraZeneca
In 1993, the medicine part of ICI became its own company called Zeneca. Sir Tom McKillop became the CEO of Zeneca in 1994.
In 1999, Zeneca joined with another company called Astra. Together, they formed AstraZeneca PLC. Sir Tom led this big merger. He became the CEO of the new, even larger company. AstraZeneca grew to be one of the biggest medicine companies in the world.
He retired from AstraZeneca in 2006. After leaving the medicine world, he took on a new challenge. He became the chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).
Time at RBS
In 2006, Sir Tom McKillop moved from leading a medicine company to leading a bank. He became the chairman of RBS. At this time, the bank was growing very fast.
Challenges at the Bank
RBS grew by buying other banks. For example, RBS bought a Dutch bank called ABN AMRO for a very large amount of money. This deal turned out to be very expensive for RBS.
By 2008, RBS was one of the largest banks in the world. However, it also took on a lot of debt. The world economy faced a big problem called the global financial crisis. This crisis made it very hard for banks to borrow money.
Because of these problems, the British government had to help RBS. In October 2008, the government put £45 billion into the bank to save it. This was a huge amount of money.
Sir Tom McKillop was criticized because of the bank's problems. On 13 October 2008, he announced he would retire early from his role as chairman of RBS. He later said that he did not have formal training in banking. He apologized for the difficulties RBS faced.
Family Life
Thomas McKillop married Elizabeth Kettle in 1966. They have three children and eight grandchildren.
Awards and Recognition
Sir Tom McKillop has received many awards for his work.
- 2002: He was made a Knight by the Queen for his services to the medicine industry. This is why he is called "Sir."
- 2002: He became a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.
- 2003: He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
- 2004: He received an honorary science degree from the University of St Andrews.
- 2005: He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a very high honor for scientists.
- 2005: He received the Annual Centenary Medal from the Society of Chemical Industry.
- 2006: He received an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University.
- 2007: He received the Royal Medal of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
- He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institution of Chemical Engineers.
- He has received 14 honorary degrees from different universities.
Other Important Roles
Sir Tom McKillop has held many other important positions:
- He was a director at BP, a large energy company, from 2005 to 2009.
- He was a director at Lloyds TSB bank from 1999 to 2004.
- He was chairman of the British Pharma Group.
- He was a Pro-chancellor of the University of Leicester.
- He was president of a group for European medicine industries.
- He was chairman of the North West Science Council.
- He was president of the Science Council from 2007 to 2011.
Images for kids
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Royal Bank of Scotland's office in Fleet Street, London
See also
