Sir Adrian Alastair Montague (born February 1948) is a British solicitor and businessman. He has been the chair of

Thames Water Thames Water Utilities Limited, trading as Thames Water, is a British private utility company responsible for the water supply and waste water Wastewater (or waste water) is water generated after the use of freshwater, raw water, drinking w ...

since July 2023. He was chairman of the insurance company

Aviva Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 19 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general ...

from April 2015 to May 2020.

Early life

Montague was born in February 1948. He earned a master of arts degree from

Trinity Hall, Cambridge Trinity Hall (formally The College or Hall of the Holy Trinity in the University of Cambridge, colloquially "Tit Hall" ) is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1350, it is th ...

Career

Montague began his career as a solicitor for Linklaters & Paines, where he worked from 1971 to 1994. He worked for the investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort from 1994 to 1997. In 1997, he joined the public sector to serve as the chief executive of the Private Finance Initiative Task Force at

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury or HMT), and informally referred to as the Treasury, is the Government of the United Kingdom’s economic and finance ministry. The Treasury is responsible for public spending, financial services policy, Tax ...

until 2000, and deputy chairman of Partnerships UK from 2000 to 2001. He was the chairman of

British Energy British Energy was the UK's largest electricity generation company by volume, before being taken over by Électricité de France (EDF) in 2009. British Energy operated eight former UK state-owned nuclear power stations and one coal-fired power ...

from 2002 to 2009. In 2008, when Montague was chairman of the insurance company

Friends Provident Friends' Provident Insurance was a banking institution founded in 1832 to serve the needs of the Society of Friends (Quakers). Based in Bradford, Yorkshire, it concentrated on sickness and annuity policies until its life fund acquired Century I ...

, he turned down an offer from the private equity firm J.C. Flowers to take over the company for 150p a share, only to see Clive Cowdery's Resolution buy it 12 months later for a mere 79p a share. Montague was the chairman of

from April 2015, succeeding

John McFarlane John McFarlane OBE (born 14 June 1947) is a British businessman. He served as group chairman of Barclays from 2015 to 2019. From 2020 to 2023, McFarlane served as Chairman of Westpac. Early life He was born in Dumfries and attended Dumfries ...

, stepping down in May 2020. In June 2023, Montague was appointed as chair of the Board at Thames Water and its parent company Kemble Water. His appointment came amid scrutiny on the financial stability of the water company. In February 2024, Montague resigned as chair from Kemble Water but retained his position at Thames Water. In May 2025, Montague appeared before a select committee to argue that bonuses for senior executives could be paid from an emergency loan that given to stabilise the company finances and save it from collapse.

Personal life

Montague has been married three times. He was married to Pamela Evans from 1970 to 1982; they had a son and two daughters. He was married to Penelope Webb from 1986 to 2009, and they had a son. In 2015, he was married for a third time, to Innes Daubeney.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montague, Adrian Alastair Living people 1948 births Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge British businesspeople British chief executives in the energy industry Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Aviva people British solicitors British chairpersons of corporations