Sir Robert Horton, FRSA (born 18 August 1939) is a British businessman. He is a Director of the European Advisory Council and of Emerson Electric Company. He spent 30 years working for BP

BP

BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...

, formerly British Petroleum. He became Chief Executive and Chairman of the Board of BP in March 1990, but was forced out in 1992.

Life

Sir Robert is the son of William Harold Horton and Dorothy Joan Horton née Baynes. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, University College, Dundee, then part of the University of St Andrews

University of St Andrews

The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...

, but now the University of Dundee

University of Dundee

The University of Dundee is a university based in the city and Royal burgh of Dundee on eastern coast of the central Lowlands of Scotland and with a small number of institutions elsewhere....

, and the MIT Sloan School of Management

MIT Sloan School of Management

The MIT Sloan School of Management is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts....

.

He was Chairman of the Tate Gallery

Tate Gallery

The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...

 Foundation 1988-92 and Business in the Arts 1988-96. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts. He was Chancellor of the University of Kent

University of Kent

The University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...

 from 1990 - 1995 and a portrait of him hangs in the Senate Building there. He was also a Governor of King's School, Canterbury 1984-2005.

Career

Sir Robert joined BP in 1957, and from 1960 on held a series of positions in oil supply, marketing, finance, and planning. In 1980 he became Chief Executive officer of BP Chemicals International and held that position until December 1983 when he was elected to the BP Board as a Managing Director, with responsibility for finance, planning, and the Western Hemisphere. On his election as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Standard Oil in April 1986, Horton resigned from BP. But following the merger of BP and Standard Oil in July 1987, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of BP America, Inc. As Chairman of British Petroleum in 1990, Sir Robert Horton aimed to reorganise the company in such a way as to attract and advance outstanding personnel.

He was Chairman of Railtrack

Railtrack

Railtrack was a group of companies that owned the track, signalling, tunnels, bridges, level crossings and all but a handful of the stations of the British railway system from its formation in April 1994 until 2002...

 from 1993 - 1999 and led the organisation through the early years of its existence including an industrial dispute from June to September 1994. He was non-executive Chairman of Betfair

Betfair

Betfair is the world's largest Internet betting exchange. The company is based in Hammersmith in West London, England. Since Betfair was launched in June 2000 it has become the largest online betting company in the UK and the largest betting exchange in the world. Betfair claim to have over 3...

from 2004 to 2006.