John Frederick Rishton (born 21 February 1958) is a British business executive who currently sits as the Chair of

Serco Serco Group plc is a British multinational corporation, multinational military, defence, Healthcare, health, Space industry, space, private prison, justice, Human migration, migration, customer service, customer services, and transport company ...

and

Informa Informa plc is a British publishing, business intelligence, and exhibitions group based in London, England. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has offices in 30 countries and around 12,000 ...

. He was previously the CEO of

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

from March 2011 to July 2015.

Biography

Rishton was born on 21 February 1958 in

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

. He graduated from the

University of Nottingham The University of Nottingham is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. Nottingham's main campus (University Park Campus, Nottingh ...

with a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in Economics in 1979. He joined

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

and worked with the company for 15 years, qualifying as an accountant and later becoming finance director of the company's Portuguese and Spanish operations. He joined

British Airways British Airways plc (BA) is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in London, England, near its main Airline hub, hub at Heathrow Airport. The airline is the second largest UK-based carrier, based on fleet size and pass ...

in 1994 as the head of finance for the United States division. He became its chief finance officer in 2001. When the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

took place, he was recognized for encouraging a program to re-structure the company and reduce its debt. He left BA in September 2005. Rishton joined

Ahold Koninklijke Ahold N.V. was a Dutch multinational retail company based in Zaandam, Netherlands. Founded in 1887 by Albert Heijn Sr., the company initially began as a single grocery store in Oostzaan and became the largest grocery chain in the ...

in January 2006 as finance director and in November 2007 became head of the retailer replacing Anders Moberg. In March 2011, he was appointed Chief Executive of

. On 22 April 2015 it was announced that Rishton would retire on 2 July 2015, and has been succeeded by Warren East as CEO of Rolls-Royce. Since September 2016, Rishton has sat on the Board of

, and assumed the role of Chair in April 2021. He was appointed chair of

in January 2021.

Family

Rishton is married and has three children.

References

Living people 1958 births British chief executives British chief financial officers Rolls-Royce people Alumni of the University of Nottingham {{UK-business-bio-1950s-stub