Annual Report and Accounts 2007

Board of Directors

Sir Robert Wilson, Frank ChapmanAshley Almanza
Peter BackhouseSir John Coles GCMGPaul Collins
Jürgen DormannBaroness HoggDr John Hood
Lord SharmanPhilippe Varin

1. Sir Robert Wilson KCMG (64)

Chairman

Sir Robert Wilson was appointed Chairman with effect from 1 January 2004, having been a non-executive Director since September 2002. He was chairman of Rio Tinto plc from 1997 to 2003 and prior to that was chief executive between 1991 and 1997. He is also chairman of The Economist Group and a non-executive director of GlaxoSmithKline plc. He has previously been a non-executive director of Diageo plc, BP plc and The Boots Company PLC (now Alliance Boots plc). (b), (d), (e), (f), (g)

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2. Frank Chapman (54)

Chief Executive

Frank Chapman was appointed Chief Executive in October 2000, having been appointed to the Board of BG plc in February 1997. He joined British Gas plc in November 1996 as Managing Director, Exploration and Production. He is an engineer and has worked in the oil and gas industry for 33 years. Prior to joining the Company, he spent a total of 22 years with Shell and BP. (a), (b), (d), (g)

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3. Ashley Almanza (44)

Chief Financial Officer

Ashley Almanza was appointed Chief Financial Officer in August 2002. He is responsible for Group finance, tax, treasury, investor relations, mergers and acquisitions, internal audit and secretariat. He joined British Gas plc in 1993 and has held a number of key management roles, including Group Finance Director and Group Financial Controller. A chartered accountant, he has worked previously in South Africa and the UK. He is currently chairman of The 100 Group, which represents finance directors of the UK’s largest companies. (a), (b), (d)

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4. Peter Backhouse (56)

Non-Executive Director

Peter Backhouse was appointed to the Board as a non-executive Director with effect from 19 July 2000. He was formerly executive vice president, refining and marketing at BP Amoco plc. Previous roles at BP included deputy chief executive of BP Oil and chief executive of BP Oil Europe. He gained considerable gas experience in international LNG and in UK natural gas as head of BP’s UK gas marketing business. He is a member of the Advisory Board of Carlyle/Riverstone Energy Partners, a US private equity fund. (c),(g)

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5. Sir John Coles GCMG (70)

Non-Executive Director

Sir John Coles was appointed to the Board as a non-executive Director on 1 March 1998. Prior to that he had a 37 year career with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and retired as Permanent Under-Secretary of State in the FCO and Head of the Diplomatic Service in November 1997. (g)

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6. Paul Collins (71)

Non-Executive Director

Paul Collins was appointed to the Board as a non-executive Director with effect from 23 October 2000 after a long career with Citigroup Inc. The Board nominated him as the Senior Independent Director from 4 May 2005. He joined Citicorp in 1961 and subsequently served as the chief investment officer, headed the financial markets division, corporate planning, finance and administration, and Europe, Africa and the Middle East. He was appointed a director of Citicorp and its principal subsidiary, Citibank, in 1985 and vice-chairman in 1988. He is a non-executive director of Actis Capital LLP and Enstar Group Limited. (c), (e), (f)

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7. Jürgen Dormann (68)

Non-Executive Director

Jürgen Dormann was appointed to the Board as a non-executive Director with effect from 1 June 2005. He is chairman of the board at Adecco S.A. (Switzerland), vice chairman of the board at Sanofi-Aventis S.A. (France) and is a member of the board at IBM Corporation. He was chairman of Swiss-based ABB Ltd from November 2001 to May 2007, having been a non‑executive director since May 1998. Prior to his roles at ABB, he had a successful career at Hoechst and Aventis spanning almost 40 years. (f), (g)

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8. Baroness Hogg (61)

Non-Executive Director

Baroness Hogg was appointed to the Board as a non-executive Director with effect from 27 January 2005. She is a former head of the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit and has extensive experience of business, government and the media. She is chairman of 3i Group plc and Frontier Economics Ltd, a non-executive director of Carnival plc and Carnival Corporation and is deputy chair of the Financial Reporting Council. (c), (e), (f)

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9. Dr John Hood (56)

Non-Executive Director

Dr Hood was appointed to the Board as a non-executive Director with effect from 26 April 2007. He has been Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford since October 2004. He was formerly Vice-Chancellor of the University of Auckland and a member of the Growth and Innovation Advisory Board and the Enterprise Council of the Prime Minister of New Zealand. He has also been a director of a number of New Zealand-based companies, including the Fonterra Co-operative Group Limited and ASB Bank Limited, a subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and was chairman of Tonkin & Taylor Limited. (c), (g)

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10. Lord Sharman (65)

Non-Executive Director

Lord Sharman was appointed to the Board as a non-executive Director with effect from 23 October 2000. He is non-executive chairman of Aegis Group plc and Aviva plc, and a non-executive director of Reed Elsevier plc. A chartered accountant, he was chairman of KPMG International from 1997 to 1999, having been senior partner since 1994. (c)

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11. Philippe Varin (55)

Non-Executive Director

Philippe Varin was appointed to the Board as a non-executive Director with effect from 2 May 2006. He became chief executive of Corus Group plc in May 2003. Prior to joining Corus, he spent 25 years with the Pechiney Group, which he joined in 1978 as a researcher. He subsequently served as vice-president, Engineering and Research and as project director for the construction of the Dunkirk (France) aluminium smelter. He later worked as group financial controller, based first in Paris then in Chicago at American National Can’s headquarters. In March 1999, he was appointed senior executive vice president of the Aluminium Sector and a member of Pechiney’s executive committee. He is also a non-executive director of Tata Steel. (c), (f)

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William Friedrich (59)

William Friedrich

During 2007, William Friedrich was Deputy Chief Executive. He stepped down from the Board and Group Executive Committee on 13 December 2007 and will retire from the Company in July 2008.

Membership of committees

(a)
Group Executive
(b)
Chairman’s
(c)
Audit
(d)
Finance
(e)
Nominations
(f)
Remuneration
(g)
Corporate Responsibility
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