Career
Nelson is a chartered accountants Nelson joined Kleinwort Benson in 1971, spending 15 years at the company working in both the United Kingdom and the United States. He was the Vice President of the company from 1973 to 1975 and the Director between 1980 and 1986. He then spent 13 years with Lazard Brothers as Managing Director between 1986 and 1998 and as Vice Chairman from 1990 to 1998.
Nelson was also a chairman of Lazard South.p.A. in Italy and a managing director of Lazard Freres, New New York
He became a Chairman of Cr Suisse First Boston Europe in 1999 and continued to do that until 2005. In January 2002, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of Kingfisher PLC
Nelson was due to retire from this role in 2011. John Nelson was a non-executive director of Woolwich Building Society from 1998 until it was taken over by Barclays Bank in 2000.
Nelson was the Director of Justice of the Peace Morgan Cazenove Holdings Limited and Cazenove Group Limited between 2008 and 2010 and was the Chairman of the London Investment Banking Association (LIBA) between 2001 and 2002.
He joined Hammerson plc in 2004 and became its Chairman in 2005. On 18 April 2011, the Council of Lloyd"s confirmed John Nelson as the next chairman of Lloyd"son He took office in October 2011.