Edmund John Phillip Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley, (born 20 February 1948) is a British businessman.
He is best known for his role as the chief executive of the energy company BP between 1995 and 2007. This period has been described as the company's "golden period of expansion and diversification". Browne was lauded during this period as he engineered mergers with rival Amoco and ARCO, and gained access to Russian oil reserves with the creation of TNK-BP. Nicknamed the "Sun King" for his management style, he was also praised for transforming the oil and gas industry's approach to climate change, and for creating a renewable and alternative energy business within BP. He resigned from BP in May 2007 in controversial circumstances surrounding his personal life and sexuality.
He is a former president of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2006 to July 2011), and has served on the boards of Goldman Sachs, Intel and Daimler Benz. Since 2001, he has been a crossbench member of the House of Lords. Lord Browne is a former partner at Riverstone, where he was co-head of the world's largest renewable energy private equity fund. He received his undergraduate education at the University of Cambridge and later attended Stanford University.
Early life and education
Browne was born on 20 February 1948 in Hamburg, Germany. His father was a British Army officer who later worked for Anglo-Persian Oil (renamed the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) in 1935), which later became British Petroleum. His mother, Paula, was a Hungarian Jewish Auschwitz survivor. Many members of Browne's Jewish maternal family, including his grandparents, were murdered at the Birkenau concentration camp during The Holocaust.
Browne was educated at King's Ely, and St John's College, Cambridge, where he earned a First Class BA degree in physics. In addition to his degree in physics from the University of Cambridge, he holds an MS degree in business from Stanford University, California.
Career at BP
At the suggestion of his father, Browne joined BP as an apprentice in 1966 while still at university. He remained with the corporation throughout his career.
Between 1969 and 1983, he held a variety of exploration and production posts in Anchorage, Alaska, New York, San Francisco, London and Canada. In 1984 he became group treasurer and chief executive of BP Finance International. In April 1986, he took up the position of executive vice president and chief financial officer of Standard Oil of Ohio in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1987, following the BP/Standard merger, in addition to his position as executive vice president and chief financial officer of BP America, he was appointed chief executive officer of Standard Oil Production Company. In 1989, he became managing director and chief executive officer of BP Exploration based in London. In September 1991, he joined BP's board as a managing director.
He was appointed group chief executive on 10 June 1995 after the British government sold its last remaining stake in the company. Following the merger of BP and Amoco, he became group chief executive of the combined group on 31 December 1998 and served until 1 May 2007. He was one of the most highly paid executives in the UK, with a remuneration package of approximately £5.7 million in 2004.
From 1997, Browne sought to re-brand BP. The company linked itself in its corporate communications with green issues by the overt link of its BP initials with the phrase "Beyond Petroleum". Browne stated that the right to self-determination was crucial for people everywhere, and that he saw his company's mission as to find ways to meet current needs without excessive harm to the environment, while developing future, more sustainable sources of energy. He promised that BP would reduce its own CO2 emissions by 10% by 2010, a target which was achieved nine years ahead of schedule.
An investigation of the fatal explosion at BP's Texas City, Texas, plant on 23 March 2005 that killed 15 workers and injured more than 170 others, resulted in fines and awards being given out for breaches in its health and safety regime.