John Oliver Frank Kingman

Sir John Oliver Frank Kingman KCB (born 24 April 1969) is Group Chairman of Legal and General plc. He is also the first non-executive Chair of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a new body being established by the British Government to oversee the strategic direction of science and innovation funding in the UK, with a budget of over £6bn a year. He is a former Second Permanent Treasury to HM Treasury. He is the son of Sir John Frank Charles Kingman.

Career

At the Treasury, Kingman was closely involved with the response to the financial crisis in the UK. In 2007-8 he led the process leading up to the nationalisation of Northern Rock, and in October 2008 he led negotiations with RBS, Lloyds Banking Group and HBOS on their recapitalisation by the UK Government. In November 2008 he was appointed as the first chief executive of UK Financial Investments Limited, the company created by the UK Government to manage the banking holdings acquired during the crisis.^[1][2]

More recently at the Treasury Kingman oversaw: the raising of £16bn through gradual sale of most of the Government's shares in Lloyds Banking Group, reducing the Government holding to 9%; the successful first sale of Government-owned shares in RBS; and the largest ever UK privatisation (the sale of £13bn of UKAR mortgage assets to Cerberus). He oversaw significant leadership changes in the major UK financial regulators (replacement of Martin Wheatley with Andrew Bailey as CEO of the FCA, and appointment of Sam Woods as CEO of the PRA). Kingman also led on liberalisation of the annuities market and creation of the National Infrastructure Commission; he negotiated the devolution deal with Greater Manchester, resulting in the introduction of an elected Mayor. As acting Permanent Secretary to HM Treasury in June 2016, Kingman had to handle the immediate market fallout from the UK's EU referendum.

From 2010-2012 Kingman worked at Rothschild & Co., the investment bank, where he was Global co-head of the Financial Institutions Group.

Previous roles in the Treasury included: Press Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer; Director of the Enterprise and Growth Unit; and Managing Director responsible for public spending control. In 2004 Kingman led a cross-Government 10-year review of UK science funding.

From 1995-97 Kingman was a Lex columnist for the Financial Times. He also worked for a spell in the Group Chief Executive's office at BP.

Personal life

Kingman is a Trustee of the Royal Opera House, a World Fellow of Yale University, a member of the Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology and a member of the Global Advisory Board of the Centre for Corporate Reputation, Oxford University. He is chairing the judges for the 2017 Wolfson Economics Prize, a £250,000 prize awarded for the best solution to a public policy problem. He was a member of the steering committee for Lord Jim O'Neill's review of anti-microbial resistance.^[1]

References

1. A & C Black (2016). KINGMAN, John Oliver Frank. Who's Who 2016 (online ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
2. Government announcement