John Browne Keynote Speaker

John Browne (Lord Browne of Madingley) is Chairman of BeyondNetZero, a climate growth equity venture established in partnership with General Atlantic. He served as Group Chief Executive of international energy company BP from 1995 to 2007, having joined the company in 1966 as a university apprentice. He led BP through a period of significant growth and transformation, including a merge with Amoco in 1998. In 1997 he delivered a landmark speech at Stanford University in which he became the first oil and gas CEO to acknowledge the risk posed by climate change, and to pledge to do something about it. Subsequently, he oversaw the establishment of BP’s significant renewable and alternative energy business. He has worked in companies that advance the energy transition ever since.

In 2007, Lord Browne joined Riverstone, where he was co-head of the world’s largest renewable energy private equity fund until 2015. He is independent co-Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Council on Science and Technology, Chairman of the Courtauld Institute of Art, a past President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and was the founding Chairman of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.

Lord Browne is the Chairman of the Francis Crick Institute, one of the world’s largest biomedical research institutes. He currently serves as Chairman of Windward, a global maritime predictive intelligence company, Chairman of Avathon, an artificial intelligence technology company, and Chairman of Carbonplace, a global carbon credit transaction network. He also serves on the board of Venterra, an offshore wind energy services company which is part of BeyondNetZero’s investment portfolio. He has previously served on the boards of Goldman Sachs, Intel, SmithKline Beecham and DaimlerChrysler.

Lord Browne is the Founder and Chairman of the John Browne Charitable Trust which supports a wide range of causes in the arts, science and engineering, education, the environment and human rights. He serves on the boards of the Holocaust Educational Trust and the Royal Opera House, is a past Chairman of the Donmar Warehouse Theatre, and was Chairman of the Tate galleries for a decade.

Lord Browne holds degrees in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and an MS in Business from Stanford University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the author of five books.