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John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley

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The Lord Browne of Madingley
Personal details
Born(1948-02-20)20 February 1948
Hamburg, Germany
OccupationManaging Director and Managing Partner (Europe) of Riverstone Holdings LLC,
President of the Royal Academy of Engineering,
Chair of the Tate,
Member of the House of Lords

Edmund John Philip Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley, FRS, FREng (born 20 February 1948) is Past President of the Royal Academy of Engineering and was group Chief Executive of BP until his resignation on 1 May 2007. Since 2001, he has been a crossbench member of the House of Lords.

Early life and education

Browne was born in Hamburg, Germany, to a British Army officer father and a Hungarian Auschwitz survivor.[1] His father also worked in civilian life for Anglo-Persian Oil, which later became British Petroleum. He was educated at the King's School, Ely and St John's College, Cambridge, where he earned a First Class Bachelor's degree in Physics. In addition to his degree in Physics from Cambridge University, he holds an MS in Business from Stanford University, California.

Career at BP

At the suggestion of his father, Browne joined BP as an apprentice in 1966 while still at university. He remained with the corporation throughout his career.

Between 1969 and 1983, he held a variety of exploration and production posts in Anchorage, Alaska, New York, San Francisco, London and Canada. In 1984 he became Group Treasurer and Chief Executive of BP Finance International. In April 1986, he took up the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of The Standard Oil of Ohio in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1987, following the BP/Standard merger, in addition to his position as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of BP America, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Standard Oil Production Company. In 1989, he became Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BP Exploration based in London. In September 1991, he joined BP's board as a Managing Director.

He was appointed Group Chief Executive on 10 June 1995 after the British government sold its last remaining stake in the company. Following the merger of BP and Amoco, he became Group Chief Executive of the combined group on 31 December 1998 and served until 1 May 2007. He was one of the most highly-paid executives in the UK, with a remuneration package of approximately £5.7 million in 2004.

From 1997, Browne sought to re-brand BP as a "green" energy company.[1] The company linked itself in its corporate communications with green issues by the overt link of its BP initials with the phrase "Beyond Petroleum". Browne stated that the right to self-determination was crucial for people everywhere, and that he saw his company's mission as to find ways to meet current needs without excessive harm to the environment, while developing future, more sustainable sources of energy. He promised that BP would cut its production of CO2 by 10% by 2010; it is as yet unproved whether BP met this goal in the wake of Browne's departure (2007).

Resignation

It was announced on 25 July 2006 that Browne would stand down as chief executive of BP in December 2008. There had been press speculation that he had wished to continue beyond this date, but he made it clear that he did not wish to do so. On 6 January 2007, Browne won his first interim injunction against the publication of allegations by his former partner, Jeff Chevalier. Browne later disclosed being "terrified" that his sexuality would be revealed publicly.[2] A week later it was announced that his retirement date had been brought forward to July 2007 and that Tony Hayward would succeed him.[3] In April 2007, after a court case lasting over four weeks, Browne appealed to the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords, who ruled that he could not prevent Associated Newspapers from printing allegations about his romantic life and alleged misuse of company funds.[4] Lord Browne resigned from BP on 1 May 2007,[5][6] and resigned as a non-executive director of Goldman Sachs on 10 May 2007.

At the time he faced allegations that he had supported his partner, Canadian Jeff Chevalier, throughout their four-year relationship, and when Chevalier moved back to Toronto at the end of the relationship, that Browne paid for 12 months of a lease on an apartment.[7] Browne says he felt under pressure to resign due to UK newspaper Mail on Sunday revelations about his personal life and relationship with Chevalier. As part of a statement made at the time of his resignation, he commented: "In my 41 years with BP, I have kept my private life separate from my business life. I have always regarded my sexuality as a personal matter, to be kept private. It is a matter of deep disappointment that a newspaper group has now decided that allegations about my personal life should be made public."[8]

Browne faced charges of perjury for lying to the court over how he met Chevalier. In a deposition to the court, Browne said the pair had met when exercising in Battersea Park. Browne later admitted this was a lie. He acknowledged that he had actually met Chevalier via a commercial gay-escort website, Suited and Booted.[2][9] However, Mr Justice Eady, the presiding judge in the case, said he decided not to refer the matter to the Attorney General with regard to possible perjury charges, seeing disclosure in the judgement of Lord Browne's behaviour as "probably sufficient punishment",[10] and adding Browne's "willingness to tell a deliberate lie to the court, persisted in for about two weeks, ... is relevant in assessing his own credibility ... So too is his willingness casually to 'trash’ the reputation of Mr Chevalier and to discredit him in the eyes of the court".[11]

BP chairman, Peter Sutherland, characterised claims that company assets and resources had been abused as "unfounded or insubstantive".[12]

Current activities

Browne is currently Managing Director and Managing Partner (Europe) of Riverstone Holdings LLC, also the chairman of Britain's only shale gas driller Cuadrilla Resources.[13]

He became President of the Royal Academy of Engineering in July 2006. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2006. In 1998, he was knighted[14] by Queen Elizabeth II and in 2001 named by the House of Lords Appointments Commission[15] as one of the "people's peers" taking the title Baron Browne of Madingley, of Cambridge in the County of Cambridgeshire,[16][17] and becoming a crossbencher in the House of Lords. In 2000 he was the recipient of the FIRST Responsible Capitalism Award.[18] He was appointed a Trustee of the Tate Gallery on 1 August 2007 and Chair of the Trustees in January 2009.[19] In November 2009 it was announced that Lord Browne would chair an independent review into university tuition fees which reported in October 2010.[20] In December 2009 the Review panel revealed that the average graduate premium in the UK, the increase in lifetime salary of a degree compared to 2 A levels, had fallen to just £100,000 (before debt).[21] In June 2010 he was appointed as the Government's Lead Non-Executive Director, charged with recruiting business leaders to reformed departmental boards.[22]

In October 2010 it was announced that Lord Browne had been appointed chairman of the advisory board at Stanhope Capital as the asset manager gears up for international expansion. The former chief executive of BP will help advise on attracting investment from charities and endowment trusts, which at present make up a small number of the Stanhope’s total clients

In June 2013, it was reported that Lord Browne had agreed to advise Russia’s Alfa Group on a new $20bn (£12.7bn) global oil and gas fund.[23]

The Browne Review

Main article: Browne Review

On 12 October 2010 the report of the inquiry headed by Lord Browne was published under the title Securing a Sustainable Future for Higher Education. The main recommendation of the report was that the current cap of £3,290 on university tuition fees should be lifted thereby allowing such institutions to determine their own fee structure.[24]

Cuts and safety record controversy

Browne is described by journalist and author Tom Bower as responsible for a "ruthless" programme of cost-cutting at BP that compromised safety, and thus the man most responsible for a string of major accidents including the Texas City Refinery explosion (2005) and the Deepwater Horizon explosion (2010). Bower also accuses Browne of tolerating only "sycophants" in his "corporate court", said to include Tony Hayward who succeeded him as BP Chief Executive.[25] Browne has rejected Bower's account, saying that he (Browne) increased the number of engineers appointed to BP.[26]

According to the Guardian newspaper, "Browne's reputation was tarnished by a string of accidents in the US which hastened his retirement", and Browne declined to appear in an hour-long BBC2 documentary on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in which Tony Hayward was extensively interviewed, broadcast in November 2010.[27]

Personal life

Lord Browne lists 17th- and 18th-century illustrated Italian books, pre-Columbian art, contemporary Art, music, opera and the theatre among his interests.

In 2013 Browne published Seven Elements That Have Changed the World, an examination of the role of seven scientific elements in history.[28]

He is a Fellow and former President of The Royal Academy of Engineering (2006-2011), a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, a Fellow of the Institute of Petroleum, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, a Companion of the Institute of Management, an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, an Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society, an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Browne been awarded Honorary Doctorates from Heriot-Watt University (D.Eng) and Robert Gordon University (D.Tech), Aston University in Birmingham, University of Dundee (LLD), Warwick University (D.Sc), Hull University (D.Sc), Cranfield University (D.Sc), Sheffield Hallam University (Hon. D Univ), University of Buckingham (D.Sc), University of Belfast (Hon DSc 0 Eng) and the University of Surrey (Hon D. Univ), Imperial College, London (Hon D.Sc), Leuven University, Belgium (D.Sc), Thunderbird (LLD), University of Notre Dame (LLD), Colorado School of Mines (D.Eng), D Mendeleyev University of Chemical Technology of Russia, Arizona State University (DHLitt). He is an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge and a Senior Member of St Antony’s College, Oxford.

References

  1. ^ a b Blake, Heidi (12 October 2010). "Lord Browne: profile of the former BP chief". London: The Daily Telegraph, UK. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  2. ^ a b Lord Browne: 'I was terrified about being known as gay – Today Programme, BBC Radio 4, 8 February 2010
  3. ^ "'Perjury' threat for ex-BP boss". BBC News. 2 May 2007. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
  4. ^ "BP chief and ex-boyfriend: full text of judgment". The Times. London. 1 May 2007. Retrieved 3 May 2007.
  5. ^ "BP boss wanted to keep gay life private". PinkNews. 1 May 2007. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  6. ^ "BP chief executive Browne resigns". BBC News. 1 May 2007. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  7. ^ Gay News[dead link‍] 365Gay.com
  8. ^ Yahoo! News[dead link‍]
  9. ^ "BP CEO scandal brings down escort agency web site". iTWire. 2 May 2007. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  10. ^ Cobain, Ian (2 May 2007). "BP's Browne quits over lie to court about private life". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
  11. ^ Rozenberg, Joshua (1 May 2007). "Lord Browne resigns after revelations he lied in court about gay lover". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 19 October 2010.
  12. ^ "BP chief executive Browne resigns". BBC News. 1 May 2007. Retrieved 6 May 2010.
  13. ^ '"Lord Browne promises to invest 'whatever it takes' in UK fracking", The Guardian 12 March 2013, accessed 31 May 2013
  14. ^ "No. 55229". The London Gazette. 18 August 1998.
  15. ^ "HOLAC Appointments". House of Lords Appointments Commission. 5 February 2010. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  16. ^ "No. 56262". The London Gazette. 3 July 2001.
  17. ^ Minutes and Order Paper – Minutes of Proceedings House of Lords, UK Parliament, 18 July 2001
  18. ^ "FIRST Award For Responsible Capitalism". FIRST Magazine.com. 2000. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  19. ^ "Press Releases | Lord Browne of Madingley appointed Chair of Tate Trustees". Tate. 26 January 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  20. ^ "Lord Browne to head review into higher education funding and student finance" (Press release). 9 November 2009. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
  21. ^ "A degree is now worth just Ł2,500 a year (before debt is paid)". London Evening Standard. 7 December 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  22. ^ "Lord Browne appointed to key Whitehall role". Cabinet Office. 30 June 2010. Retrieved 15 September 2010.
  23. ^ "Lord Browne to advise $20bn oil and gas fund". City AM. 18 June 2010. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  24. ^ "The Browne Report". HMSO. 12 October 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2010.
  25. ^ Tom Bower (3 July 2010). "Return of Lord Oil Slick: Why has Cameron handed Lord Browne such a key job?". Daily MailMail Online. London. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  26. ^ "Response From Former BP CEO John Browne". Newsweek. 16 June 2010. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
  27. ^ "Tony Hayward on BP oil crisis: 'I'd have done better with an acting degree'". The Guardian. 9 November 2010. Retrieved 9 November 2010.
  28. ^ "Seven Elements That Have Changed the World". Orion Books. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
Preceded by Chief Executive of BP
1995–2007 		Succeeded by

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