Iain Cameron Conn (born 22 October 1962) is a British businessman. He was the chief executive (CEO) of
Centrica
Centrica plc is a British multinational energy and services company with its headquarters in Windsor, Berkshire. Its principal activity is the supply of electricity and gas to consumers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
It is the largest su ...
from 2015 to 2019.
Early life
Iain Cameron Conn was born in October 1962
in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
and grew up in Galashiels. The elder of two sons, his father died when Conn was 12. He graduated in 1985 from
Imperial College London
Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...
, where he studied
chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials int ...
and management.
Career
Conn served as chief executive
downstream
Downstream may refer to:
* Downstream (bioprocess)
* Downstream (manufacturing)
* Downstream (networking)
* Downstream (software development)
* Downstream (petroleum industry)
* Upstream and downstream (DNA), determining relative positions on DNA ...
, of
BP from 2007 until 2014 and was a main board director from 2004 to 2014.
BP's Downstream division comprised all of BP's customer facing, manufacturing and supply businesses in over 70 countries mainly under the BP, Castrol and Aral brands. In addition to leading Downstream, Conn also had group regional responsibility for Europe, Asia and Southern Africa. Previously he served as the group executive officer for strategic resources of BP from 2004 to 2007, responsible for most of BP's functions and regional co-ordination, and was chief executive of BP's petrochemical division from 2002 to 2004. Conn spent 29 years at BP, with leadership roles in oil trading, marketing, refining and petrochemicals, and E&P.
From 1 January 2015 until 2020, Conn served as the CEO of
Centrica
Centrica plc is a British multinational energy and services company with its headquarters in Windsor, Berkshire. Its principal activity is the supply of electricity and gas to consumers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
It is the largest su ...
, replacing
Sam Laidlaw
William Samuel Hugh Laidlaw (born 3 January 1956, Kensington) is the Executive Chairman of Neptune Energy, the independent E&P company. He is former chief executive officer of Centrica, the British natural gas and Energy use and conservation in ...
.
In this role Conn had responsibility for Centrica and had been leading the repositioning of the company for the next phase both strategically and in response to the low oil and gas price environment. However, as he stepped down, Centrica's share price had reached a historic low. The company is shifting its portfolio emphasis more towards the customer in the areas of energy supply, services, the connected home, distributed energy and power, and energy marketing and trading.,
Conn was a director of BP from 2004 to 2014, and
Rolls-Royce Holdings
Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a British multinational aerospace and defence company incorporated in February 2011. The company owns Rolls-Royce, a business established in 1904 which today designs, manufactures and distributes power systems for ...
from 2005 to 2014, latterly as senior independent director.
He is a non-executive director of
BT.
Conn is a member of the council of Imperial College, chairman of the advisory board of Imperial College Business School, and a member of the advisory board of the
Centre for European Reform The Centre for European Reform (CER) is a London-based think tank that focuses on matters of European integration. It is a prominent source of ideas and commentary in debates about a wide range of EU-related issues, both in the United Kingdom and in ...
. He is a trustee of the Movement to Work. He is a member of the president's committee of the Confederation of British Industry. Previously he was a member of the advisory boards of the Centre for China in the World Economy at Tsinghua University, and of the Schwarzman School at Tsinghua.
Conn is a fellow of
Royal Academy of Engineering
The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering.
The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...
, the
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...
, the
Institution of Chemical Engineers
The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) is a global professional engineering institution with over 33,000 members worldwide. It was founded in 1922 and awarded a Royal Charter in 1957.
It has offices in Rugby, London, Melbourne, Wellingto ...
, and the City and Guilds of London Institute.
In 2018, Conn received a pay of £2.4 million which is a 44% increase from the income (£1.68 million) of 2017 despite Centrica losing 742,000 customers and terminating around 4000 employees.
In July 2019 Centrica announced Conn would be stepping down from his post and retire from the company's board in 2020. Conn told the Today programme it was "a natural time to hand over" as Centrica had reported a pre-tax loss of £446m in the six months to June.
References
External links
Centrica board
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conn, Iain Cameron
1962 births
Living people
People educated at St. Mary's School, Melrose
People educated at Loretto School, Musselburgh
Alumni of Imperial College London
British chief executives in the energy industry
British corporate directors
British Telecom people
Directors of BP
Rolls-Royce people
Centrica people
Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering
People from Musselburgh