John Makinson CBE (born 10 October 1954) [1] is the Chairman of Kano, a London-based computing company which makes DIY computer and coding kits. [2] He formerly served as chairman of the international publishing company Penguin Random House. He was chairman of The National Theatre from 2010 to 2016. He is a Board member of Harvard University Press and a Director of Mercy Corps, an international humanitarian organisation. In October 2024 he was appointed Chair of the Board of Bradford Literature Festival. [3]
After being educated at Repton School and completing his degree at Cambridge University, John started working as a journalist, first at Reuters and then at the Financial Times , where he edited the influential "Lex" column. From there he moved to Saatchi and Saatchi's US holding company, before co-founding Makinson Cowell, [4] a specialist independent financial consultancy firm. After five years, he returned to the Financial Times to become its managing director, before accepting a job as the Pearson Group finance director, where he worked until moving to the Penguin Group, a subsidiary of the Pearson Group. [5] He was Chairman and CEO of Penguin Group (worldwide) from 2002 to 2013.
He was a co-chair of the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian organisation, for many years. He was also Chairman of the National Theatre from 2010 to 2016.
He is married to actor and activist Nandana Sen, daughter of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and Padmashri-awardee Nabaneeta Dev Sen. [6]
He has used his knowledge of business to help compile a report for the British government, called Incentives for Change, and received a CBE in 2001 for his services to public sector productivity. He was also photographed by Harry Borden for the National Portrait Gallery in Britain. [7]
Saatchi and Saatchi is a British multinational communications and advertising agency network with 114 offices in 76 countries and over 6,500 staff. It was founded in 1970 and is currently headquartered in London. The parent company of the agency group was known as Saatchi and Saatchi PLC from 1976 to 1994, was listed on the New York Stock Exchange until 2000 and, for a time, was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In 2000, the group was acquired by the Publicis Groupe. In 2005, the group went private.
John Michael Jack, is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom and was Member of Parliament for Fylde between 1987 and 2010, serving at various junior ministerial posts during the John Major administration. He was chair of the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS).
Pearson plc is a multinational corporation, headquartered in the UK, focused on educational publishing and services.
Adam Alexander Crozier is a Scottish businessman who was formerly the chief executive officer of media company ITV plc, operator of the ITV television network covering most of the United Kingdom.
Anthony William Hall, Baron Hall of Birkenhead, is a British life peer. He was Director-General of the BBC between April 2013 and August 2020, and chaired the board of trustees of the National Gallery from September 2020 to May 2021.
Paul Myners, Baron Myners, was a British businessman and politician. In October 2008 he was elevated to the House of Lords as a life peer and was appointed City Minister in the Labour Government of Gordon Brown, serving until May 2010. As City Minister Myners was responsible for overseeing the financial services sector during the 2007–2008 financial crisis and its aftermath, including leading the controversial 2008 United Kingdom bank rescue package. Myners sat in the House of Lords as a Labour peer until 2014, resigning to become a non-affiliated member before joining the crossbench group in 2015.
Nandana Dev Sen is an Indian-born American actress, screenwriter, children's author, and child-rights activist. Her first film role in Bollywood was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black (2005), starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee, in which she played the role of Rani's 17-year-old younger sister.
Kevin John Roberts is a British businessman. He was the chief executive officer (CEO) of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi from 1997 to 2014. In September 2006, Saatchi & Saatchi won a US$430 million JC Penney contract because of the idea of lovemarks, which was invented and promoted by Roberts. Roberts became executive chairman of Saatchi & Saatchi in 2015, then non-executive chairman in 2016. He resigned in August 2016 to focus on the marketing and leadership consultancy he founded in 1995, Red Rose Consulting.
Julia Evelyn Morley is an English businesswoman, charity worker and former model. She is the chairman and CEO of the Miss World Organization, which organizes the Miss World and Mister World pageants. She is the widow of Miss World creator, the late Eric Morley who organized the pageant from its inception in July 1951, until his death in 2000.
Oliver Brian Sanderson Poole, 1st Baron Poole, was a British Conservative Party politician, soldier and businessman.
Roger George Parry is a media and technology entrepreneur based in the UK. He is chairman of a number of companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange including Oxford Metrics plc and YouGov plc. He is the co-founder of the international marketing communications group MSQ Partners and of the television drama production company Chrysalis Vision. He is a visiting fellow of Oxford University. And is the author of six books and writes extensively on the media and associated topics. He was chairman of the trustees of Shakespeare's Globe theatre for eight years. He is a non-executive member of the board of directors of Uber.
Vanni Emanuele Treves CBE was a British business executive. He was Chairman of Channel 4 (1998–2003), a senior partner of City law firm Macfarlanes, and Chairman (2001–2009) of Equitable Life.
Andrew John Scott, born 1958, was Director of the National Railway Museum in York, part of the National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI) in England from 1994. His previous museum appointments had been with the West Yorkshire Transport Museum in Bradford, the Bradford Industrial Museum, and the London Transport Museum 1988–94. Before that he was an engineer in the public sector, having gained a BsC in Civil Engineering and an MSc in Mining Engineering, both at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Glen Richard Moreno is an American businessman. Moreno has worked for several large companies in the United States and the United Kingdom, and worked as acting-chairman of UK Financial Investments Limited which manages the British government's bank shareholdings. He has been Chairman of Virgin Money UK since May 2015.
Sir David Charles Maurice Bell is a businessman, publisher and philanthropist.
Jeremy Theodorson Sinclair is a British businessman and advertising executive who was a founding director in 1995 of ad agency M&C Saatchi, having earlier been one of the founders of Saatchi & Saatchi in 1970.
John Joseph Paul Studzinski, CBE is an American-British investment banker and philanthropist. Since September 2018 he has been Managing Director and Vice Chairman of the global investment-management firm PIMCO.
Rona Alison Fairhead, Baroness Fairhead,, is a life peer and businesswoman. She served as a minister of state at the Department for International Trade from 2017 to 2019. Prior to that, she was the last chairman of the BBC Trust before its abolition and the first woman to hold the post.
Rita Ann Clifton CBE is a British advertising professional and a former UK Chairman of Interbrand who currently works as a speaker, facilitator, writer, and non-executive director of a portfolio of companies.
Robert William Ashburnham Swannell is a British businessman, public servant and former investment banker. He was the chairman of Marks & Spencer from 2011 to 2017, and chairman of the Shareholder Executive and its successor UK Government Investments from 2014 to 2021.