Charles Woodburn (born March 1971) is a British businessman who has been the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...

since July 2017.

Education

Woodburn earned a bachelor's degree in electrical sciences from

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...

in 1992 and a PhD in engineering from

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, followed by an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from

Erasmus University Rotterdam Erasmus University Rotterdam (abbreviated as ''EUR'', nl, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam ) is a public research university located in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The university is named after Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a 15th-century humanist ...

Career

Before working for BAE Systems, Woodburn was chief executive of Expro Group, which surveys and manages oil and gas wells around the world. He had also spent 15 years at

Schlumberger Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague. Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling compa ...

, an oil services company, overseeing major projects in Thailand, Australia, and the US. On joining BAE Systems he was to be paid a base salary of £750,000 a year and given more than £1.6m to buy him out of incentive schemes at Expro. It was reported in December 2016 that he was paid a total joining package worth £3 million. In 2021, Woodburn received a salary rise of 13% to bring his annual pay to £1.1 million. He is also in line for an extra £2 million long-term share award payable if he stays at BAE until the end of 2023.

References

1971 births Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge BAE Systems people British chief executives Erasmus University Rotterdam alumni Living people People from Windsor, Berkshire {{UK-business-bio-1970s-stub