John Banham


Sir John Michael Middlecott Banham is a British business leader. He was the chairman of the major brewer Whitbread from 2000 to 2005, and also chairman of ECI Ventures and Johnson Matthey.

Biography

Banham was raised in Cornwall, where his father worked as a surgeon and his mother as a National Health Service administrator, and was educated at Charterhouse School, and Queens' College, Cambridge, where he gained a first class degree in Natural Sciences. He worked at the Foreign Office for two years before moving to Reed International and then McKinsey and Co.
He was the first controller of the Audit Commission from 1983 to 1987, and was then Director General of the Confederation of British Industry from 1987 to 1992. In 1992 he became chairman of the Local Government Commission for England that led to a large-scale local government reform in England. He was knighted in the 1992 New Year Honours.
He was chairman of Tarmac from 1994 to 1999, and the chairman of Kingfisher plc from 1995 to 2001. He became the chairman of Johnson Matthey in April 2006. He has also acted as chairman of West Country Television and as a non-executive director of both National Westminster Bank and National Power.
In 1987, he was awarded an Honorary Degree from the University of Bath. Banham is an active freemason.