Keith Robertson Cochrane (born 11 February 1965) is a Scottish businessman and former chief executive (CEO) of

Weir Group The Weir Group plc is a Scottish multinational engineering company headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History The company was established in 1871 as an eng ...

Stagecoach Group Stagecoach Group is a transport group based in Perth, Scotland. It operates buses and express coaches in the United Kingdom. Stagecoach was originally founded in 1976 as ''Gloagtrotter'', a recreational vehicle and minibus hire business. Dur ...

and Carillion plc (interim). In March 2019, he was appointed CEO of Schenck Process.

Early life

Born 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 ...

, Cochrane was educated at

Dunblane Dunblane (, ) is a town in the council area of Stirling in central Scotland, and inside the historic boundaries of the county of Perthshire. It is a commuter town, with many residents making use of good transport links to much of the Central Be ...

High School, Perthshire, and studied accountancy at

Glasgow University The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in post-nominals; ) is a public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ...

. He qualified as a chartered accountant with

Arthur Andersen Arthur Andersen LLP was an American accounting firm based in Chicago that provided auditing, tax advising, consulting and other professional services to large corporations. By 2001, it had become one of the world's largest multinational corpo ...

Career

Cochrane was Group Finance Director of

plc from 1996, becoming Group Chief Executive in 2000. He then joined

ScottishPower Scottish Power Limited, trading as ScottishPower, is a vertically integrated energy company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It is a subsidiary of Spanish utility firm Iberdrola. ScottishPower is the distribution network operator for Central and ...

plc in 2003 as Director of Group Financial Reporting, and from 2005 was Group Director of Finance. Cochrane became Honorary Treasurer of the

Royal Scottish National Orchestra The Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) () is a Scottish orchestra, based in Glasgow. It is one of the five national performing arts companies of Scotland. Throughout its history, the Orchestra has played an important part in Scotland’s ...

in September 2008. On 2 November 2009 Cochrane became Group Chief Executive of

plc, having joined Weir as Group Finance Director in July 2006. He resigned as a director of Weir Group on 30 September 2016. Cochrane said that he was "looking for the next opportunity" and that the Weir Group had become "a bit samey". In 2015, Cochrane was appointed as the lead "non-executive director” for the Scotland Office and Office of the Advocate General. Cochrane was appointed to the board of

Carillion Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018. Carillion was created in July 1999, following a ...

plc on 2 July 2015 and on 10 July 2017 he became its Interim Chief Executive, taking over from

Richard Howson Richard John Howson (born August 1968) is a British businessman, and the former chief executive (CEO) of Carillion, a British multinational facilities management and construction services company that went into liquidation in January 2018. Howson ...

. He remained in this position until the company went into

voluntary liquidation Liquidation is the process in accounting by which a Company (law), company is brought to an end. The assets and property of the business are redistributed. When a firm has been liquidated, it is sometimes referred to as :wikt:wind up#Noun, w ...

on 15 January 2018. In the final report of the Parliamentary inquiry into the collapse of Carillion, published on 16 May 2018, the Carillion board was described as "either negligently ignorant of the rotten culture at Carillion or complicit in it." The report continued: :"Keith Cochrane was an inside appointment as interim Chief Executive, having served as a non-executive on the board that exhibited little challenge or insight. He was unable to convince investors of his ability to lead and rebuild the company. ... Non-executives are there to scrutinise executive management. They have a particularly vital role in challenging risk management and strategy and should act as a bulwark against reckless executives. Carillion’s NEDs were, however, unable to provide any remotely convincing evidence of their effective impact." The report also recommended that the

Insolvency Service The Insolvency Service is an executive agency of the Department for Business and Trade with headquarters in London. It has around 1,700 staff, operating from 22 locations across the UK. The Insolvency Service administers compulsory company liq ...

should consider whether the former Carillion directors, including Cochrane, could be disqualified from acting as a director. In January 2021, the Insolvency Service said it would seek to ban eight former Carillion directors, including Cochrane, from holding senior boardroom positions. However, a trial due to start on 16 October 2023 was cancelled after the Insolvency Service decided it was not in the public interest to pursue Cochrane and four others. In September 2017, Cochrane was appointed non-executive chairman of

fracking Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, fracing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of formations in bedrock by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure inje ...

company

Third Energy Onshore Third Energy Onshore Ltd is a UK company involved in oil and gas exploration, including proposals for fracking operations in Kirby Misperton, North Yorkshire. The company was incorporated as Viking Petroleum UK Ltd in October 2003. In December 2003 ...

. He resigned as a director in September 2018. On 4 January 2018 Cochrane was appointed as Chairman of the Advisory Board of the German equipment manufacturer, Schenck Process Group. In October 2018, Cochrane was appointed chairman of Peterhead-based engineer, Score Group. On 1 March 2019, he took over as chief executive of Schenck Process.

Honours

In March 2016, Cochrane was elected a Fellow of 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 ...

, Scotland's National Academy for science and letters. Cochrane was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to business in Scotland.

Personal life

Cochrane's interests include golf, gardening and watching Scotland play rugby.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cochrane, Keith Living people 1965 births British manufacturing chief executives Businesspeople from Edinburgh People from Dunblane Scottish accountants Scottish chief executives Alumni of the University of Glasgow Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Carillion people 20th-century Scottish businesspeople 21st-century Scottish businesspeople