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. 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]
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).
Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is one of the seven co-founders of Infosys, and has previously served as the chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president, and chief mentor of the company before retiring and taking the title chairman emeritus. As of August 2024, his net worth was estimated to be $5.1 billion, making him the 606th richest person in the world according to Forbes.
Pearson plc is a multinational corporation, headquartered in the UK, focused on educational publishing and services.
Dorling Kindersley Limited is a British multinational publishing company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. Established in 1974, DK publishes a range of titles in genres including travel, history, geography, science, space, nature, sports, gardening, cookery, parenting and many others. The worldwide CEO of DK is Paul Kelly. DK has offices in New York, Melbourne, London, Munich, New Delhi, Toronto, Madrid, Beijing, and Jiangmen. DK works with licensing partners such as Disney, LEGO, DC Comics, the Royal Horticultural Society, MasterChef, and the Smithsonian Institution. DK has commissioned authors such as Mary Berry, Monty Don, Robert Winston, Huw Richards, and Steve Mould for a range of books.
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is an American publishing house that was founded by Blanche Knopf and Alfred A. Knopf Sr. in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in addition to leading American literary trends. It was acquired by Random House in 1960, and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group division of Penguin Random House which is owned by the German conglomerate Bertelsmann.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Paul John Flowers is an English businessman and former Methodist minister. He is a former Labour councillor in Rochdale and Bradford, and was Non-executive chairman of the Co-operative Bank.
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.
Anthony James Joseph Simonds-Gooding CBE was an Irish-born British business executive. He served as a chief executive officer of British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB). His sister is visual artist Maria Simonds-Gooding.
Kano Computing is a global computer hardware and software start-up based in London. The company went into administration in 2023 and the business assets were sold to Alex Klein.