Sir John Gordon St Clair Buchanan (9 June 1943 – 13 July 2015) was a New Zealand-born scientist and director. Buchanan was born in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

in June 1943 and grew up in

Papatoetoe Papatoetoe is a suburb in Auckland, New Zealand. It is the largest suburb in Auckland by population and is located to the northwest of Manukau Central, and 18 kilometres southeast of Auckland CBD. Papatoetoe has the unofficial title of Auckland ...

. He received his education at

Auckland Grammar School Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about I ...

and at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

(

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

, MSc, PhD in Chemistry), and at

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and Harvard Universities. The title of this 1967 doctoral thesis at Auckland University was ''The Clemmensen reduction of 1,4-diketones and diterpenoid transformations''. Buchanan joined BP in 1970, where he progressed through the ranks and eventually was appointed by

John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley Edmund John Phillip Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley, (born 20 February 1948) is a British businessman. He is best known for his role as the chief executive of the energy company BP between 1995 and 2007. This period has been described as ...

as the group's top finance executive, which caused surprise given that his background is in science and not in accountancy. He retired from BP in 2002, as the company has a strict retirement policy set at 60 years. For the next 12 years, Buchanan was with

BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

, where he was an independent director (1 February 2003 to July 2015). He was a director of

Alliance Boots Alliance Boots GmbH was a multinational pharmacy-led health and beauty group with corporate headquarters in Bern, Switzerland and operational headquarters in Nottingham and Weybridge, United Kingdom. The company had a presence in over 27 countr ...

(December 1997 to 2003). He was deputy chairman of

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

(25 July 2006 to 24 July 2012). He was a director of

ARM Holdings Arm is a British semiconductor and software design company based in Cambridge, England. Its primary business is in the design of ARM processors (CPUs). It also designs other chips, provides software development tools under the DS-5, RealView an ...

(3 May 2012 until 1 May 2014). He was a director of

AstraZeneca AstraZeneca plc () is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas includin ...

(25 April 2002 to 29 April 2010). Buchanan became chairman of

Smith & Nephew Smith & Nephew plc, also known as Smith+Nephew, is a British multinational medical equipment manufacturing company headquartered in Watford, England. It is an international producer of advanced wound management products, arthroscopy products, ...

in April 2006 and remained in that position until his death. He was chairman of the UK chapter of the

International Chamber of Commerce The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC; French: ''Chambre de commerce internationale'') is the largest, most representative business organization in the world. Its over 45 million members in over 100 countries have interests spanning every s ...

from May 2008 until his death. Following the

2011 Christchurch earthquake A major earthquake occurred in Christchurch on Tuesday 22 February 2011 at 12:51 p.m. local time (23:51 UTC, 21 February). The () earthquake struck the entire of the Canterbury region in the South Island, centred south-east ...

, he was founding chairman of the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal Trust UK that he set up with the help of the

New Zealand High Commission in London The High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom is New Zealand's foremost diplomatic representative in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and in charge of New Zealand's diplomatic mission in the United Kingdom ...

. In the

2012 New Year Honours 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, Buchanan was knighted for his services to industry. Buchanan had pancreatic cancer from about 2011. He became unwell in late 2014 and relinquished some of his roles. Buchanan died on 13 July 2015 and was survived by his wife, son, and daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchanan, John 1943 births 2015 deaths Scientists from Auckland People educated at Auckland Grammar School University of Auckland alumni Knights Bachelor New Zealand knights BP people BHP people Vodafone people Alumni of the University of Oxford Harvard University alumni