Sir John Oliver Frank Kingman KCB FRS (born 24 April 1969) has been Chairman of

Legal & General Legal & General Group plc, commonly known as Legal & General, is a British multinational financial services and asset management company headquartered in London, England. Its products and services include investment management, lifetime mortg ...

since 2016. He is also Chair of Tesco Bank and Deputy Chair (and twice Acting Chair) of the National Gallery. From 2016-21 he was the first Chair of

UK Research and Innovation UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is a non-departmental public body of the Government of the United Kingdom that directs research and innovation funding, funded through the science budget of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Str ...

, which oversees Government science and innovation funding of about £8bn a year. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 2021 “for his unwavering support for science throughout his career”. In 2018 he undertook a highly critical review of the

Financial Reporting Council The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) is an independent regulator in the UK and Ireland based in London Wall in the City of London, responsible for regulating auditors, accountants and actuaries, and setting the UK's Corporate Governance and ...

, recommending wholesale reform of the FRC and ending self-regulation of the major audit firms. He is a former

Second Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior civil servant of a department or ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are the non-political civil s ...

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ec ...

Education

He was a Queen’s Scholar at Westminster School and a Casberd Scholar at

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...

, where he took a 1st class degree in Modern History; he is now an Honorary Fellow.

Career

Early in his career (1995-7) Kingman was a

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

Lex columnist. He also worked in the Chief Executive's office at BP, 1997-8. Kingman was closely involved with the response to the 2007-9 financial crisis. He handled

nationalisation of Northern Rock In 2008 the Northern Rock bank was Nationalization, nationalised by the Government of the United Kingdom, British government, due to financial problems caused by the subprime mortgage crisis. In 2010 the bank was split into two parts (Northern Ro ...

, and led negotiations with RBS, Lloyds and HBOS on their £37bn recapitalisation. He was the first chief executive of

UK Financial Investments UK Financial Investments (UKFI) was a limited company set up in November 2008 and mandated by the British government to manage HM Treasury's shareholdings in the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) and in UK Asset Resolution, which held the residu ...

, which managed the Government's bank shareholdings.Government announcement
Whilst at the Treasury, Kingman was responsible for selling £16bn of Lloyds shares, the first RBS share sale, and the largest-ever UK privatisation (£13bn of mortgage assets). Kingman led on liberalising the annuity market and creating the National Infrastructure Commission; he negotiated

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

's devolution deal, introducing an elected Mayor. Earlier, he was responsible for a fundamental overhaul of the UK competition regime (2001 Enterprise Act), and introducing the Highly Skilled Migrants’ Programme. He was particularly involved with science funding, working on five spending reviews which prioritised science and in 2004 leading the cross-Government 10 year science and innovation framework. From 2003-6 he was a board Director of the European Investment Bank. From 2010-2012 Kingman was Global co-head of the Financial Institutions Group at

Rothschild Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "with the red sign", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by sign ...

. Kingman is a World Fellow of Yale University and a member of the Trilateral Commission. He chaired the judges for the 2017 Wolfson Economics Prize. He was a Trustee of the Royal Opera House, 2014-21, and has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, the Global Advisory Committee for the Centre for Corporate Reputation, Oxford University, and the Development Board for the £37m renewal of St-Martin-in-the-Fields.

Personal life

Kingman is the son of the mathematician Sir John Frank Charles Kingman FRS. His partner is Diana Gerald, CEO of the charity BookTrust. They live in central London with their daughter.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kingman, John Oliver Frank 1969 births Living people People educated at The Dragon School People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of St John's College, Oxford British civil servants Civil servants in HM Treasury Second Permanent Secretaries of HM Treasury Investment bankers