David Simon, Baron Simon of Highbury

Who is David Simon, Baron Simon of Highbury?

David Alec Gwyn Simon, Baron Simon of Highbury CBE is a British businessman.

He graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1961 and joined British Petroleum as a management trainee, became chief executive of BP Oil International in 1982, managing director of BP in 1986, chief executive of BP from 1992 to 1995 and chairman from 1995 to 1997.

In the early years of his career he spent some time at the elite business school INSEAD. He became Advisor to Unilever and was Chairman of the Belgo-British Conference in 2004.

When Labour won the 1997 elections, he was appointed Minister for Trade and Competitiveness in Europe. Simon had been an industrialist for many years.

Simon was invested as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1991. He was created a life peer as Baron Simon of Highbury, of Canonbury in the London Borough of Islington on 16 May 1997, having been knighted two years before.