Iain Cameron Conn (born 22 October 1962) is a British businessman. He was the chief executive (CEO) of

Centrica Centrica plc is a British  multinational energy and services company with its headquarters in Windsor, Berkshire, England. It is the largest supplier of gas to domestic customers in the United Kingdom, and one of the largest suppliers ...

from 2015 to 2020.

Early life

Iain Cameron Conn was born in October 1962 in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and grew up in Galashiels. The elder of two sons, his father died when Conn was 12. He graduated in 1985 from

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

, where he studied

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

and management.

Career

Conn served as chief executive downstream, of BP from 2007 until 2014 and was a main board director from 2004 to 2014. BP's Downstream division comprised all of BP's customer facing, manufacturing and supply businesses in over 70 countries mainly under the BP, Castrol and Aral brands. In addition to leading Downstream, Conn also had group regional responsibility for Europe, Asia and Southern Africa. Previously he served as the group executive officer for strategic resources of BP from 2004 to 2007, responsible for most of BP's functions and regional co-ordination, and was chief executive of BP's petrochemical division from 2002 to 2004. Conn spent 29 years at BP, with leadership roles in oil trading, marketing, refining and petrochemicals, and E&P. From 1 January 2015 until March 2020, Conn served as the CEO of

, replacing Sam Laidlaw. In this role Conn had responsibility for Centrica and led the repositioning of the company back towards the customer, reducing costs, shifting the culture, building new capabilities and re-positioning the portfolio for the next phase of the energy transition and in response to the low oil and gas price environment. The company shifted its portfolio emphasis more towards the customer in the areas of energy supply, services, distributed energy and power, and energy marketing and trading. During his tenure he had to contend with the CMA investigation into the UK energy market, and the subsequent introduction of a price cap in retail energy, something Conn opposed because of its effect on competition. Conn was a director of BP from 2004 to 2014, and

Rolls-Royce Holdings Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational aerospace and defence company incorporated in February 2011. The company owns Rolls-Royce, a business established in 1904 which today designs, manufactures and dist ...

from 2005 to 2014, latterly as senior independent director. He was a non-executive director and senior independent director of BT. Conn was a member of the Council of Imperial College (2010-2019) and chairman of the advisory board of Imperial College Business School (2004-2020) and a member of the advisory board of the

Centre for European Reform The Centre for European Reform (CER) is a London-based think tank that focuses on matters of European integration. In 2021 it was ranking 58th among the top think tanks worldwide (non-US) in the Global Go To Think Tank Index Report published by th ...

. He is currently Senior Advisor to Blackstone and Chairman of EngineeringUK, and has focused his portfolio on the energy transition, technology & engineering and building UK capability. He is a member of the STOP Multiple Sclerosis Appeal Board, and previously was a trustee of the Movement to Work. He was a member of the president's committee of the Confederation of British Industry for many years. Previously he was a member of the advisory boards of the Centre for China in the World Economy at Tsinghua University, and of the Schwarzman School at Tsinghua. Conn is a fellow of

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senio ...

, the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

, the

Institution of Chemical Engineers The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) is a global professional engineering institution with 30,000 members in 114 countries. It was founded in 1922 and awarded a Royal Charter in 1957. The Institution has offices in Rugby, Warwickshire, ...

, and the City and Guilds of London Institute. In July 2019 Centrica announced Conn would be stepping down from his post and retire from the company's board in 2020. Conn told the Today programme it was "a natural time to hand over" following the re-positioning of the company in preparation for the next phase of the energy transition and UK energy market.

References

External links

Centrica board
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conn, Iain Cameron 1962 births Living people People from Musselburgh People educated at St Mary's School, Melrose People educated at Loretto School, Musselburgh Alumni of Imperial College London Scottish chief executives British chief executives in the energy industry British corporate directors BT Group people Directors of BP Rolls-Royce people Centrica people Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering