Chris O'Shea (born 23 October 1973) is a British businessman. He has been 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 ...

since early 2020. He has been a non-executive director of ITT since May 2024.

Early life

O'Shea is Scottish and was born in Fife in 1973. His family moved to Glasgow when he was 11. He studied Accounting & Finance at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

, and completed an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

Career

O'Shea was

chief financial officer A chief financial officer (CFO) is an officer of a company or organization who is assigned the primary responsibility for making decisions for the company for projects and its finances; i.a.: financial planning, management of financial risks, ...

of Vesuvius plc until September 2015, when he was appointed finance director of

Smiths Group Smiths Group plc is a British, Multinational corporation, multinational, diversified engineering business headquartered in London, England. It operates in over 50 countries and employs 15,000 staff. Smiths Group is listed on the London Stock Ex ...

Centrica

O'Shea joined Centrica in 2018 as chief financial officer before becoming

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

in early 2020. O'Shea has led a turnaround of Centrica, cutting 5000 jobs of which more than half were management roles, and removing three layers of management. In 2022 Centrica posted the highest annual earnings in its history, repeating the feat in 2023 with record first half earnings. From 2019 to 2022, O'Shea forewent annual bonuses of several million pounds citing the hardships faced by consumers during

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and then the global energy crisis. In 2023, Centrica posted year-end profits of over £3 billion and O'Shea faced calls to forego his bonus again eventually settling for a package of over £4 million. In January 2024, O'Shea gave an interview to ''

BBC Breakfast ''BBC Breakfast'' is a British television breakfast news programme, produced by BBC News and broadcast on BBC One every morning from 6:00am. It is also broadcast on the UK feed of BBC News channel on weekends. The simulcast is presented live, ...

'', in which he said of his pay of £4.5million in 2022: "You can't justify a salary of that size. It's a huge amount of money, I am incredibly fortunate. I don't set my own pay, that's set by our remuneration committee." In 2023, his remuneration increased to £8.2million, which was criticised by the High Pay Centre.

References

External links

Centrica board
{{DEFAULTSORT:OShea, Chris Living people British chief executives in the energy industry Centrica people 1973 births People from Fife Alumni of the University of Glasgow Duke University alumni