Lord Browne of Madingley joined BP in 1966 and he joined the board in 1991. He was appointed Group Chief Executive in 1995 and held that position until May 2007.

He is a Partner and Managing of Riverstone Holdings LLC; Fellow and former President of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2006-11), a Fellow of the Royal Society and a foreign member of the US Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was appointed a Trustee of the Tate Gallery in August 2007 and Chairman of the Trustees in January 2009. He chaired the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance (the Browne Review). He was appointed the UK Government's Lead Non-Executive Board member in June 2010. He is Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Blavatnik School Government at Oxford University and a variety of other trusts and boards.

Lord Browne was Chairman of the Advisory Board of Apax Partners LLC from 2006-07. He was a non-executive director of Goldman Sachs from 1999-2007, a non-executive director of Intel Corporation from 1997-2006, a Trustee of The British Museum from 1995-2005, a member of the Supervisory Board of DaimlerChrysler AG from 1998-2001 and a non-executive director of SmithKline Beecham from 1996-99.

He was voted Most Admired CEO by Management Today from 1999-2002.  

He was knighted in 1998 and made a life peer in 2001.

His memoirs, Beyond Business were published in February 2010.

He holds degrees from Cambridge and Stanford Universities.