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 Sir John Parker FREng
President of The Royal Academy of Engineering 2011
- present
Sir John Parker has chaired
five FTSE100 companies, including National Grid,
from which he stepped down in December 2011, and is
currently Chairman of the mining conglomerate Anglo
American. He is Vice Chairman of DP World (Dubai)
and a Non-Executive Director of Carnival Corporation
and EADS (AIRBUS).
Sir John is a passionate
advocate of harnessing the benefits of economic
growth to improve quality of life, address society’s
challenges, strengthen social cohesion and,
critically, to provide the education and training
that give young people real opportunity.
Born into a farming family in
Northern Ireland. he studied Naval Architecture and
Mechanical Engineering at the College of Technology
and Queens University, Belfast and joined the ship
design team at Harland & Wolff where he progressed
into senior management positions.
He was appointed Managing
Director of shipbuilders Austin & Pickersgill in
Sunderland in 1974 and, following the
nationalisation of the shipbuilding industry, he
joined the Board of the British Shipbuilders
Corporation, later becoming Deputy Chief Executive.
He returned to Harland & Wolff in the early 1980s as
Chairman and Chief Executive to lead a turnaround in
the yard’s fortunes and transfer it into the private
Sector.
Sir John joined Babcock
International plc as CEO in 1993 – later becoming
Chairman as well – and again transformed the
company. In 1997, he became a Non-executive Director
of British Gas which led to his becoming Chairman of
the Lattice Group on its demerger from BG Group in
2000. Lattice merged with National Grid in 2002 and
Sir John became Chairman of the combined company,
National Grid Transco.
He has also held a host of
non-executive directorships, including the
Industrial Development Board of Northern Ireland,
British Coal Corporation, GKN, BG and Brambles
Industries.
Elected to The Royal Academy
of Engineering as one of its youngest Fellows in
1983, Sir John is also an Elder Brother of Trinity
House (2010), a Visiting Fellow of University of
Oxford, a member of the General Committee of Lloyds
Register of Shipping, Vice President of The Royal
Navy and Marines Charity and a governor of the Royal
National Lifeboat Institution. He is a recipient of
honorary doctorates from a number of universities in
the UK and Ireland. He has been President of the
Royal Institution of Naval Architects, Prime Warden
of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, an
Honorary Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Fuellers and the Tallow Chandlers Livery Company and
President of the Smeatonian Society of Civil
Engineers.
He led National Grid’s Young
Offenders into Work programme. He has served
government on the Prime Minister’s Business Council
for Britain, the Defence Academy Advisory Board, the
Asia Task Force and was Deputy Chairman of the White
Ensign Association.
1942 - Born 8 April in
Northern in County Down, Northern Ireland. Educated
at Newcastle Technical High School, County Down
1958 - Joins Harland &
Wolff as a student apprentice (Naval Architect)
1958-64 - Naval
Architecture and Mechanical Engineering studies
College of Technology and Queen’s University,
Belfast
1964 - Joins ship
design team at Harland and Wolf
1974 - Appointed
Managing Director of Austin & Pickersgill
(Sunderland)
1978 - Joins Board of
British Shipbuilders Corporation, later becoming
Deputy Chief Executive
1983 - Elected Fellow
of The Royal Academy of Engineering
1983 - Returns to
Harland and Wolff as Chairman and Chief Executive
1993 - CEO of Babcock
International (also Chairman 1994-2000)
1999 - Chairman of
Firth Rixson
2000-03 - Deputy Chairman
of P&O Princess Cruises
2000-02 - Chairman of
Lattice Group
2001 - Knighted for
services to the defence and shipbuilding industries
2002 - Chairman of RMC
Group (leads sale to Cernex in 2005)
2002-11 - Chairman of
National Grid
2004-09 - Chairman of
Court of the Bank of England
2005 -Chairman of P&O –
leads sale to DP World in 2006
2006-11 - Chancellor of
the University of Southampton
2007-09 - Joint Chairman
of Mondi
2008-09 - Chair of BVT
Joint Venture
2009 - Chairman of
Anglo American
2011 - President of The
Royal Academy of Engineering
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