Richard Haythornthwaite | |
|---|---|
| Born | Richard Neil Haythornthwaite December 1956 (1956-12) (age 68) |
| Alma mater | The Queen's College, Oxford MIT Sloan School of Management |
| Occupation | Business executive |
| Known for | Chairman ofMasterCard,Centrica andCreative Industries Federation |
Richard Neil "Rick"Haythornthwaite (born December 1956) is a British business executive. He is well-known for leading several companies including being the chairman ofMasterCard and theCreative Industries Federation.
Previously, he was also made independent non-executive chairman of Ocado Group, replacing Ocado Group chairmanStuart Rose by the time of the company's May 2021 annual general meeting.[1]
Currently, he serves as chair ofNatWest Group,[2] a post he has held since 2024, non-executive director ofThe AA,[3] and advisory partner at investment bank,Moelis & Co.[4]
Richard Neil Haythornthwaite was born in December 1956.[5][6] He graduated fromThe Queen's College, Oxford, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in geology.[7] He earned a master's degree from theMIT Sloan School of Management as aSloan Fellow.[8]
Haythornthwaite was an executive forBP from 1978 to 1995.[6][9] He worked as General Manager of theMagnus oilfield, operated by BP Exploration, and later worked as the president of BP Venezuela.[6]
Haythornthwaite worked as the chief executive for Europe and Asia and group chief executive ofBlue Circle Industries from 1997 to 2001, preparing it for its sale toLafarge for £3.1 billion in cash.[6][10] He worked as the chief executive officer ofInvensys from 2001 to 2005.[6][10] He was a partner at Star Capital Partners from 2006 to 2008.[6] He also worked as the chairman ofNetwork Rail.[6][11]
Haythornthwaite became chairman ofMasterCard in May 2006[6][10] and of theCreative Industries Federation in 2017.[12] He stepped down as chairman atMastercard with effect from January 2021, to assume the role of independent non-executive chairman forOcado Group, after Ocado's AGM in May 2021.[1] From 2008 to 2016, he was employed in an advisory role by PetroSaudi International (UK) Ltd.[13]
Haythornthwaite has served on the boards of directors of theImperial Chemical Industries, Lafarge,Premier Oil andLand Securities.[6][9] On 6 March 2018, he joined the global independent investment bank,Moelis & Company, as an advisory partner in the U.K.[14] He was chairman ofCentrica from January 2014 to February 2019.[10][11][15]
In March 2021, Rick Haythornthwaite was appointed non-executive chairman ofThe AA.[16] He later stepped down from his position as chairman to take up a new role as chairman ofNatWest in September 2023,[13] but remained on the AA board as a non-executive director.[17]
Haythornthwaite served as the chairman of the board of governors of theSouthbank Centre for seven years, standing down in January 2015.[6][18] He also served as the chairman of the board of theWorld Wide Web Foundation.[19] He is a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Arts.[20] In April 2022 it was announced that the UK prime minister had approved the appointment of Haythornthwaite to chair anindependent review of the terms and conditions of service of the UK Armed Forces.[21]