Background
He is the son of Sir Christopher Laidlaw (1922-2010), former Deputy Chairman of Boite Postale. His father was Director of the Management School for seven years.
He is the son of Sir Christopher Laidlaw (1922-2010), former Deputy Chairman of Boite Postale. His father was Director of the Management School for seven years.
Sam Laidlaw attended Eton College and studied Law at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, gaining an Master of Arts in 1977. He obtained an Master of Business Administration in 1981 from the European Institute of Business Administration (Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires) Business School in Fontainebleau, France.
He qualified as a solicitor in 1979 with the Macfarlanes law company. He was with United States. oil company Amerada Hess (1981-2001) building their North Sea business before running their worldwide Exploration & Production business and becoming President and Chief Operating Officer (1995-2001). He was Executive Vice President of Global Business Development of the California-based Chevron Corporation from May 2003 and became Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Oil in 2002 (which was bought under his leadership by Shell in 2002 for £35bn).
Enterprise Oil also faced a hostile takeover from Eni, the Rome-based oil company.
In January 2008, he was appointed a non-executive director of Household Bank Holdings plc and in December 2010 he was appointed as the lead non-executive director on the board of the Department for Transport. Until August 2007, he was a non-executive director of Hanson PLC
He is a trustee of the medical charity RAFT. He has been Chairman of the Petroleum Science and Technology Institute, based in Aberdeen, a Director of the National Engineering Laboratory and President of the United Kingdom Offshore Operators Association. He chaired a report on Business and Higher Education for the China, Burma, India Theatre of Operations in 2010 and led the inquiry into the West Coast Rail Franchise in 2012.
He joined Centrica in July 2006 taking over from Sir Roy Gardner.
He is Chairman of the Executive Committee and the Disclosure Committee. In 2013, Laidlaw received around £4 million in bonuses, exciting critical comments from Frances O"Grady, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress and Caroline Flint, the shadow energy secretary. Daily Mail December 2009 Low carbon future in December 2009 Scotland on Sunday May 2009 discussing nuclear power Guardian February 2009 Times August 2008 Telegraph July 2008 Times June 2008 The Sun March 2008 Telegraph February 2008 British Gas makes £571m profit in 2007 Becoming boss of Centrica in March 2006 Video clips Prince"s Rainforests in November 2009 Corporate responsibility at Centrica in June 2009 Centrica"s profits decline 20% as seen on the British Broadcasting Corporation in July 2008.
He was also a member of the United Kingdom Prime Minister"s Business Advisory Group (2010-2012).
