Sir John Parker
Sir John Parker started his early career in ship designing and shipbuilding companies. Following nationalisation of the shipbuilding industry he was appointed to the board of the British Shipbuilders Corporation in 1978 and later became Deputy Chief Executive. He became Chairman and Chief Executive of Harland & Wolff in 1983.

Sir John joined Babcock International as CEO in 1993 and became Chairman and CEO in 1994. In 1997 he became 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.

Board Mandates
Sir John is currently Chairman of National Grid, Joint Chairman of Mondi plc. and Deputy Chairman of Port and Free World Zone (Dubai).

He is Senior Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Court of the Bank of England and a Non-Executive Director of Carnival Corporation and EADS (Airbus).

Sir John has also been Non-Executive Director of the Industrial Development Board of Northern Ireland, the British Coal Corporation, GKN plc and Brambles Industries plc. He has been Chairman of Firth Rixson, Deputy Chairman of P&O Princess Cruises, Chairman of RMC Group, leading the Group’s transformation and sale to Cemex of Mexico in 2005. He was appointed Deputy Chairman of P&O in February 2005 and Chairman in May 2005. He led the Group's sale to DP World (Dubai) in early 2006.

Sir John is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Younger Brother of Trinity House. He was President of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects and Prime Warden of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights and an Honorary Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Fuellers. He is a Governor of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and a member of the General Committee of Lloyds Register of Shipping. He serves on the Defence Academy Advisory Board and is a member of the Government’s Asia Task Force.

He is a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Council and leads the ‘Young Offenders
into Work’ programme.

He is Chancellor of the University of Southampton since August 2006.

Awards
Sir John is a recipient of honorary doctorates from a number of universities in the UK and Ireland. He was knighted in 2001 for services to the Defence and Shipbuilding Industries.