Richard Neil "Rick" Haythornthwaite (born December 1956) is a British business executive. He has led several companies including being the chairman of MasterCard and the

Creative Industries Federation The Creative Industries Federation (2014-2021) was a national organisation for all the UK's creative industries, cultural education and arts. It advocated for the sector, aiming to ensure that the creative industries were central to political, eco ...

. He has been appointed as the independent non-executive chairman of Ocado Group, stepping in by the time of the company's May 2021 annual general meeting to replace previous Ocado chairman

Stuart Rose Stuart Alan Ransom Rose, Baron Rose of Monewden, (born 17 March 1949) is a British businessman and life peer, who was the executive chairman of Marks & Spencer until 2010, remaining as chairman until early 2011. He was knighted in 2008 for his ...

Early life

Richard Neil Haythornthwaite was born in December 1956. He graduated from

The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in geology. He earned a master's degree from the

MIT Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (branded as MIT Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree progra ...

as a Sloan Fellow.

Career

Haythornthwaite was an executive for BP from 1978 to 1995. He worked as General Manager of the Magnus oilfield, operated by BP Exploration, and later worked as the president of BP Venezuela. Haythornthwaite worked as the chief executive for Europe and Asia and group chief executive of Blue Circle Industries from 1997 to 2001, preparing it for its sale to Lafarge for £3.1 billion in cash. He worked as the chief executive officer of

Invensys Invensys Limited was a multinational engineering and information technology company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. At its height, the company had offices in more than 50 countries and its products were sold in around 180 countries. I ...

from 2001 to 2005. He was a partner at Star Capital Partners from 2006 to 2008. He also worked as the chairman of

Network Rail Network Rail Limited is the owner (via its subsidiary Network Rail Infrastructure Limited, which was known as Railtrack plc before 2002) and railway infrastructure manager, infrastructure manager of most of the railway network in Great Britain. ...

. Haythornthwaite became chairman of MasterCard in May 2006 and of the

in 2017. He stepped down as chairman at Mastercard with effect from January 2021, to assume the role of independent non-executive chairman for

Ocado Ocado Group plc ( ) is a British business based in Hatfield, England, which licenses grocery technology. It also owns a 50% share in the UK grocery retail business Ocado.com (the other 50% is owned by UK retailer Marks & Spencer). The company ...

Group, after Ocado's AGM in May 2021. From 2008 to 2016, he was employed in an advisory role by PetroSaudi International (UK) Ltd. Haythornthwaite has served on the boards of directors of the

Imperial Chemical Industries Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) was a British Chemical industry, chemical company. It was, for much of its history, the largest manufacturer in Britain. Its headquarters were at Millbank in London. ICI was listed on the London Stock Exchange ...

, Lafarge,

Premier Oil Premier Oil plc was an independent UK oil company with gas and oil interests in the United Kingdom, Asia, Africa and Mexico. It was devoted entirely to the 'upstream' sector of the industry — the exploitation of oil and gas — as opposed to th ...

and

Land Securities Land Securities Group plc, trading as Landsec, is the largest commercial property development and investment company in the United Kingdom. The firm became a real estate investment trust (REIT) when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom i ...

. On 6 March 2018 he joined the global independent investment bank,

Moelis & Company Moelis & Company is a global investment bank that provides financial advisory services to corporations, governments, and financial sponsors. The firm advises on strategic decisions such as mergers and acquisitions, recapitalizations and restruc ...

, as an advisory partner in the U.K. He was chairman 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 January 2014 to February 2019. Haythornthwaite was selected as chairman of

NatWest National Westminster Bank, trading as NatWest, is a major Retail banking, retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the Corporate merger, merger of National Provincial Bank and We ...

in September 2023, to take up his post in January 2024.

Philanthropy

Haythornthwaite served as the chairman of the board of governors of the

Southbank Centre Southbank Centre is an arts centre in London, England. It is adjacent to the separately owned National Theatre and BFI Southbank. It comprises the three main performance spaces – the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Purcell R ...

for seven years, standing down in January 2015. He also served as the chairman of the board of the

World Wide Web Foundation The World Wide Web Foundation, also known as the Web Foundation, was a US-based international nonprofit organization advocating for a free and open web for everyone. It was cofounded by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and ...

. He is a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

. In April 2022 it was announced that the UK prime minister had approved the appointment of Haythornthwaite to chair an independent review of the terms and conditions of service of the UK Armed Forces.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Haythornthwaite, Richard 1956 births Living people Alumni of the Queen's College, Oxford British chief executives in the energy industry MIT Sloan Fellows MIT Sloan School of Management alumni British business executives British corporate directors BP people Centrica people