Simon Thompson (born 16 June 1959) is a British investment banker and business executive. He is the current chairman of the Rio Tinto and was the former chairman of:

Tarmac Group Tarmac Group Limited was a British building materials company headquartered in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. It produced road surface, road surfacing and heavy building materials including Construction aggregate, aggregates, concrete, cement ...

and

Tullow Oil Tullow Oil plc is a multinational oil and gas exploration company founded in Tullow, Ireland, with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange. History The company was founded by Aidan Hea ...

. He serves as the chairman of 3i.

Early life

Simon Thompson was born on 16 June 1959 in

Bramhall Bramhall is a large village in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics had a population of 17,195. Bramhall was formerly a civi ...

. He was educated at the

Manchester Grammar School The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) is a highly Selective school, selective Private_schools_in_the_United_Kingdom, private day school for boys aged 7-18 in Manchester, England, which was founded in 1515 by Hugh Oldham (then Bishop of Exeter). ...

. He graduated from

University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

, where he earned a bachelor's degree in geology in 1985.

Career

Thompson worked for

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a major British retail banking, retail and commercial bank with a significant presence across England and Wales. It has traditionally been regarded one of the "Big Four (banking)#England and Wales, Big Four" clearing house ...

from 1981 to 1985,

N M Rothschild & Sons Rothschild & Co SCA is a multinational private and alternative assets investor, headquartered in Paris, France and London, United Kingdom. It is the flagship of the Rothschild banking group controlled by the British and French branches of the Rot ...

from 1985 to 1994, and S. G. Warburg & Co. from 1994 to 1995. He joined

Minorco The Minorco SA (Minerals and Resources Company) was a mining company based in Luxembourg. It was set up by the South African Anglo American Corporation in 1987 to hold its non-African, non-diamond mining operations. Although Minorco was quoted on ...

, a mining company, in 1995, first as its head of finance until 1997, and as the head of its Brazilian subsidiary until 1999, when it merged with

Anglo American plc Anglo American plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational mining company with headquarters in London, England. It is the world's largest producer of platinum, with around 40% of world output, as well as being a major producer of ...

. He subsequently worked for Anglo American, serving as the chief executive officer of its Anglo Base Metals Division from 2001 to 2007. Thompson was the chairman of the

from 2005 to 2007. He was the chairman of

from 2012 to 2015, when he succeeded

Adrian Montague Sir Adrian Alastair Montague (born February 1948) is a British solicitor and businessman. He has been the chair of Thames Water since July 2023. He was chairman of the insurance company Aviva from April 2015 to May 2020. Early life Montague wa ...

as the chairman of 3i in 2015. Thompson served on the boards of directors of the

Newmont Newmont Corporation is an American gold mining company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado. It is the world's largest gold mining corporation. Incorporated in 1921, it holds ownership of gold mines in the United States, Canada, Mexico, the Do ...

from 2008 to 2014. He also served on the board of

Amec Foster Wheeler Amec Foster Wheeler plc was a British multinational consultancy, engineering and project management company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. In October 2017, it was acquired by Wood Group. It was focused on the Oil, Gas & Chemicals, ...

from 2009 to 2015, and

Sandvik Sandvik AB is a Swedish multinational corporation, multinational engineering company specializing in products and services for mining, rock excavation, drilling rig, rock drilling, rock processing (crusher, crushing and mechanical screening, scre ...

from 2014 2015. He serves as the chairman of Rio Tinto. In 2020, under Thompson's chairmanship, Rio Tinto destroyed a 46,000-year-old significant Aboriginal site at

Juukan Gorge Juukan Gorge is a gorge in the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, about from Tom Price, Western Australia, Tom Price. It was named by the daughter of Puutu Kunti Kurrama man Juukan, also known as Tommy Ashburton, who w ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

Personal life

Thompson married Fiona Graham-Bryce in 1986. He is a member of the Athenæum Club and the

Alpine Club Alpine clubs are typically large social clubs that revolve around climbing, hiking, and other outdoor activities. Many alpine clubs also take on aspects typically reserved for local sport associations, providing education and training courses, se ...

, and he is the author of two books about climbing and hiking.

Works

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References

Living people 1959 births People from Bramhall People educated at Manchester Grammar School Alumni of University College, Oxford English investment bankers British corporate directors English non-fiction writers 3i Group people {{England-business-bio-stub