John Kingman (businessman)

Sir John Oliver Frank Kingman KCB FRS (born 24 April 1969) is Chairman of Legal & General (since 2016) and Tesco Bank (since 2020). He is also Deputy Chair (currently, for the second time, Acting Chair) of the National Gallery (since 2018).

From 2016-21 he was the first Chair of UK Research and Innovation, which allocates Government science and innovation funding of c£8bn a year. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021 “for his unwavering support for science throughout his career”.

In 2018 he undertook a highly critical review of the Financial Reporting Council, recommending its replacement by a new statutory Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority and ending self-regulation of the major audit firms. The Government is implementing his recommendations.^[1]

He is a former Second Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury. He is the son of the mathematician Sir John Frank Charles Kingman FRS.

Career[]

Kingman was closely involved with the response to the 2007-9 financial crisis. He handled the nationalisation of Northern Rock, and led negotiations with RBS, Lloyds and HBOS on their £37bn recapitalisation. He was the first chief executive of UK Financial Investments, which managed the Government's bank shareholdings.^[2][3]

At the Treasury Kingman was responsible for: selling £16bn of Lloyds shares; the first sale of RBS shares; and the largest-ever UK privatisation (£13bn of mortgage assets). Kingman led on liberalisation of the annuity market and creation of the National Infrastructure Commission; he negotiated Greater Manchester's devolution deal, introducing an elected Mayor. Earlier, he was responsible for a fundamental overhaul of the UK competition regime (2001 Enterprise Act), the introduction of the Highly Skilled Migrants’ Programme, and commissioning a series of independent reviews including: Myners (institutional investment); Sandler (savings); Higgs (corporate governance); Barker (housing and planning); Hampton (regulation); and Cooksey (medical research). He was particularly involved with science funding, working on five spending reviews which prioritised science and in 2004 personally leading the Government's 10 year science and innovation framework. From 2003-6 he was a board Director of the European Investment Bank.

From 2010-2012 Kingman was Global co-head of the Financial Institutions Group at Rothschild.

Earlier in his career (1995-7) Kingman was a Financial Times Lex columnist. He also worked in the Chief Executive's office at BP, 1997-8.

Kingman is a World Fellow of Yale University and a member of the Trilateral Commission. He chaired the judges for the 2017 Wolfson Economics Prize. He was a Trustee of the Royal Opera House, 2014-21, and has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, a member of the Global Advisory Committee for the Centre for Corporate Reputation, Oxford University, and a member of the Development Board for the £37m renewal of St-Martin-in-the-Fields.

Personal life[]

Kingman’s partner is Diana Gerald, CEO of the charity BookTrust. They live in central London with their daughter.

References[]