Richard Neil Haythornthwaite, known as Rick, (born December 1956) is a British business executive. He has led several companies including being the Chairman of MasterCard and the Creative Industries Federation. He has been appointed as the independent non-executive chairman of Ocado Group, stepping in by the time of the company's May 2021 annual general meeting to replace previous Ocado Chairman Stuart Rose.

Early life

Richard Neil Haythornthwaite was born in December 1956. He graduated from

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

, where he received a bachelor of science degree in geology. He earned a master's degree from the

MIT Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (MIT Sloan or Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs, ...

as a

Sloan Fellow The Sloan Fellows program is the world's first mid-career and senior career master's degree in general management and leadership. It was initially supported by a grant from Alfred P. Sloan, the late CEO of General Motors, to his alma mater, MI ...

Career

Haythornthwaite was an executive for BP from 1978 to 1995. He served as General Manager of the

Magnus oilfield The Magnus oilfield is a large oilfield in the United Kingdom's zone of North Sea. It is located north-east of the Shetland Islands. The field is located mainly in Block 211/12a. Resources are estimated to total of oil, of which are recoverabl ...

, operated by BP Exploration, and later served as the President of BP Venezuela. Haythornthwaite served as the Chief Executive for Europe and Asia and Group Chief Executive of

Blue Circle Industries Blue Circle Industries was a British public company manufacturing cement. It was founded in 1900 as the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd through the fusion of 24 cement works, mostly around on the Thames and Medway estuaries, toget ...

from 1997 to 2001, preparing it for its sale to

Lafarge La Farge, LaFarge or Lafarge can refer to: People * Antoinette LaFarge (1966–), American artist and writer * Christopher Grant LaFarge (1862–1938), American architect and partner in the firm Heins & LaFarge * Christopher Grant La Farge ( ...

for GBP£3.1 billion in cash. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Invensys from 2001 to 2005. He was a partner of Star Capital Partners from 2006 to 2008. He also served as the Chairman of

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. Network Rail is an "arm's leng ...

. Haythornthwaite became the Chairman of MasterCard in May 2006 and Chairman of the Creative Industries Federation in 2017. He stepped down from the Chairman position at Mastercard after 14 years, with effect from January 2021, to assume the role of independent non-executive chairman for Ocado Group, after Ocado’s AGM in May 2021. Haythornthwaite served on the Boards of Directors of the Imperial Chemical Industries, Lafarge,

Premier Oil Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

and

Land Securities Land Securities Group plc is the largest commercial property development and investment company in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust (REIT) when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007. It is ...

. On 6 March 2018 he joined the global independent investment bank,

Moelis & Company Moelis & Company is a global investment bank that provides financial advisory services to corporations, governments, and financial sponsors. The firm advises on strategic decisions such as mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restruc ...

, as an Advisory Partner in the U.K. He was Chairman of Centrica from January 2014 to February 2019.

Philanthropy

Haythornthwaite served as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Southbank Centre for seven years, standing down in January 2015. He also served as member of the board of the

World Wide Web Foundation The World Wide Web Foundation, also known as the Web Foundation, is a US-based international nonprofit organization advocating for a free and open web for everyone. It was cofounded by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and R ...

. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In April 2022 it was announced that the UK Prime Minister had approved the appointment of Haythornthwaite to chair an independent review of the terms and conditions of service of the UK Armed Forces.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haythornthwaite, Richard 1956 births Living people Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford British chief executives in the energy industry MIT Sloan Fellows MIT Sloan School of Management alumni British business executives British corporate directors BP people Centrica people