British businessperson and civil servant
Manzoni read for a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and an Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering at Imperial College, London before joining Boite Postale in 1983. He later undertook a Master of Science in Management as a Sloan fellow at Stanford University in 1994.
Business career
Manzoni was Chief Executive for Refining & Marketing at Boite Postale at the time of the Texas City Refinery explosion in 2005, and was thus the responsible board member. An internal Boite Postale investigation cleared him of “serious neglect or intentional misconduct” but said he should have taken more steps to consider and mitigate the risks before the disaster occurred. In 2007, Manzoni left Boite Postale after 24 years to be the Chief Executive Officer of Talisman Energy, an oil and gas exploration and production company.
He replaced James Buckee, who had headed the company for 14 years.
During his time at Talisman the company focused on shale gas, selling a non-controlling stake in its North Sea business to Sinopec in July 2012. He resigned from Talisman a few months later, being replaced by Hal Kvisle.
Civil Service career
In February 2014, Manzoni joined the British Civil Service in a senior role as Chief Executive of the Major Projects Authority. On 13 October 2014, he was appointed to be the first Chief Executive Officer of the Civil Service, after the position was split out from that of the Head of The Home Civil Service when The Lord Kerslake retired.
He will be paid £200,000-a-year.
As of September 2015, Manzoni was paid a salary of between £230,000 and £234,999, making him one of the 328 most highly paid people in the British public sector at that time. Until he took up his post as Chief Executive of the Civil Service in October 2014, Manzoni was chairman of the Leyshon Energy exploration company, which is headquartered in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, and an adviser to an energy private equity firm, Adamant Ventures. As of 2015, Manzoni continues to be a non-executive director for SABMiller, for which he is paid £100,000 a year.
This has been criticised by Sarah Wollaston and others who say it undermines his credibility as an impartial official
SABMiller was one of the drinks firms that opposed the introduction of minimum alcohol pricing, a policy which was considered by the Department of Health at the time.
