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, now called National Grid plc.

Board Mandates

Sir John is currently Chairman of National Grid and since August 2009 is Chairman of Anglo American. He is also Vice-Chairman of DP World (Dubai) since 2006.

He is a Non-Executive Director of Carnival Corporation and EADS (Airbus) and was until June 2009, Senior Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Court of the Bank of England.

Sir John has also been Joint-Chairman of Mondi plc (until July 2009), a 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, an Elder Brother of Trinity House and a visiting fellow of the University of Oxford. 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, a member of the General Committee of Lloyds Register of Shipping and Vice-President of The Royal Navy and Marines Charity. He served on the Defence Academy Advisory Board and was a member of the Government’s Asia Task Force as well as being Chairman of the White Ensign Association.

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 and a member of Citigroup’s International Advisory Board.

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.