Browne, John P (1948– )

English business executive, whose climb up the corporate ladder had, by 1995, earned him the appointment as chief executive of UK oil giant BP (British Petroleum). Under his stewardship, the company continued to expand and in 2006 announced record annual profits of £11 billion. In May 2007, however, Browne resigned abruptly from BP following revelations about his private life and allegations that he had lied in a court of law about his male partner.

In 1987, Browne negotiated the merger between BP and Standard Oil Company Cleveland Ohio, becoming chief executive officer and vice-president of the new BP America. In 1991 he became executive director of BP and, in 1995, group chief executive. He led the merger with US oil giant Amoco in 1998, and subsequently negotiated the takeover of Atlantic Richfield, giving the company a market capitalization of $200 billion. He then developed his interests in climate change, announcing BP's commitment to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Browne was born in Hamburg, Germany, where his father was stationed as a British soldier. The family then moved to Iran when his father joined BP Anglo-Iranian Oil (later renamed British Petroleum) in the 1950s. Having been a boarder at King's School in Ely, England, Browne joined BP as a university apprentice before winning a scholarship to the University of Cambridge. There he achieved a first in physics at St John's College, and then a master's in business studies at Stanford University in California. Joining BP full time in 1969, he was posted to Anchorage, Alaska, as a trainee petroleum engineer. Up until 1983 he held a variety of production and exploration posts in Anchorage, New York, San Francisco, London, and Canada.

Based in London, Browne became group treasurer and chief executive of BP Finance International in 1984. In 1986 he was appointed vice-president and chief financial officer of the Standard Oil Company Cleveland Ohio. The following year, he negotiated BP's £4.7 billion purchase of the 45% share in Standard that it did not already own. Also in that year he combined the two companies' interests and became chief executive officer, and executive vice-president of the new BP America. In 1989, and based again in London, he became chief executive officer of BP Exploration, where he focused on new areas of opportunity in South America and Asia, away from mature markets.

In 1991 he joined the main BP board as executive director and, in 1995, was the first scientist to be appointed group chief executive. Browne negotiated the $57 billion merger with US oil giant Amoco in 1998 – a move which stunned the oil industry, prompting other large corporate deals (which saw Exxon buy US rival Mobil and France's Total purchase Belgium's Petrofina). Just a few months after the BP Amoco merger was finalized, he then negotiated the successful $27 billion takeover of Atlantic Richfield (ARCO), giving the company a market capitalization of $200 billion (second only to Exxon Mobil).

From 1997 Browne adopted a more environmentalist stance, giving key speeches about climate change issues, notably to Stanford University that year. Throwing down the gauntlet to other oil majors, he announced that BP would make efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its products.

Browne has been a non-executive director of Goldman Sachs 1999–2007, Intel Corporation 1997–2006, and SmithKline Beecham 1996–99; a trustee of the British Museum 1995–2005; and a member of the supervisory board of Daimler Chrysler 1998–2001. In August 2007 he was appointed a trustee of the Tate Gallery. He is also a fellow (and president from 2006) of the Royal Academy of Engineering and of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and an honorary fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers and St John's College, Cambridge. In addition, he is Emeritus Chairman of the Advisory Board of Stanford Graduate School of Business. He was knighted in the 1998 Queen's Birthday Honours and in 2001 was made a life peer as Lord Browne of Madingley.