Sam Laidlaw

Sam Laidlaw
Born	William Samuel Hugh Laidlaw 3 January 1956 Kensington, London, England
Residence	Kensington and Chelsea, London
Nationality	British
Education	Eton College
Alma mater	Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Occupation	Businessman
Years active	1977–present
Title	CEO of Centrica plc
Term	2006–2014
Predecessor	Sir Roy Gardner
Successor	Iain Conn
Spouse(s)	Deborah "Debbie" Morris-Adams
Children	4

William Samuel Hugh Laidlaw (born 3 January 1956, Kensington) is the former Chief Executive Officer of Centrica, the British natural gas and electricity company.

Early life

He is the son of Sir Christopher Laidlaw (1922-2010), former Deputy Chairman of BP. Sam Laidlaw attended Eton College and studied Law at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, gaining an MA in 1977. He qualified as a solicitor in 1979 with the Macfarlanes law company. He obtained an MBA in 1981 from the INSEAD Business School in Fontainebleau, France. His father was Director of the Management School for seven years.

Career

He was with U.S. oil company Amerada Hess (1981-2001) building their North Sea business before running their worldwide Exploration & Production business and becoming President and Chief Operating Officer (1995-2001). He was Executive Vice President of Global Business Development of the California-based Chevron Corporation from May 2003 and became Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Oil in 2002 (which was bought under his leadership by Shell in 2002 for £3.5bn). Enterprise Oil also faced a hostile takeover from Eni, the Rome-based oil company.

In January 2008, he was appointed a non-executive director of HSBC Holdings plc and in December 2010 he was appointed as the lead non-executive director on the board of the Department for Transport. He was also a member of the UK Prime Minister's Business Advisory Group (2010-2012). Until August 2007, he was a non-executive director of Hanson plc. He is a trustee of the medical charity RAFT.

He has been Chairman of the Petroleum Science and Technology Institute, based in Aberdeen, a Director of the National Engineering Laboratory and President of the United Kingdom Offshore Operators Association. He chaired a report on Business and Higher Education for the CBI in 2010 and led the inquiry into the West Coast Rail Franchise in 2012.

He joined Centrica in July 2006 taking over from Sir Roy Gardner. He is Chairman of the Executive Committee and the Disclosure Committee. In 2013, Laidlaw received around £4 million in bonuses, exciting critical comments from Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the TUC and Caroline Flint, the shadow energy secretary.^[1]

Personal life

He is married with three sons and a daughter. He lives in Kensington and Chelsea, London. He married Deborah (Debbie) Morris-Adams in Aylesbury Vale in Buckinghamshire in April 1989.

See also

• OFGEM

External links

• Official Centrica profile
• Becoming Executive Vice President of Chevron in 2003

News items

• Daily Mail December 2009
• Low carbon future in December 2009
• Scotland on Sunday May 2009 discussing nuclear power
• Guardian February 2009
• Times August 2008
• Telegraph July 2008
• Times June 2008
• The Sun March 2008
• Telegraph February 2008
• British Gas makes £571m profit in 2007
• Becoming boss of Centrica in March 2006

Audio clips

• Talking about Centrica's profits in February 2008

Video clips

• Prince's Rainforests in November 2009
• Corporate responsibility at Centrica in June 2009
• Centrica's profits decline 20% as seen on the BBC in July 2008

References

1. Rankin, Jennifer (27 March 2013). "Centrica bosses split £16m pay pot as customers face 6% gas price rise". The Guardian.