David Barran

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Person.png David Barran  Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(businessman)
Portrait of Sir David Barran.png
BornDavid Haven Barran
23 May 1912
Died1 June 2002 (Age 90)
NationalityUK
Alma materWinchester College, Trinity College (Cambridge)
Member ofThe 1001 Club
One of the UK's "most articulate spokesmen for free enterprise". Attended the 1967 Bilderberg conference as Chair of Shell.

Sir David Haven Barran was a UK businessman and one of the country's "most articulate spokesmen for free enterprise".[1] He attended the 1967 Bilderberg conference as Chair of Shell.

He was active in CBI affairs, and was a leading member of the Industrial Policy Group, an elite of industrialists who met to discuss the "fundamental malaise in the British economy", earning themselves an attack from the Labour chancellor Jim Callaghan in 1967 as "sinister men".[2] He was member of the 1001 Club.

Background

Barran was born on May 23 1912 into a prosperous family of Leeds cloth merchants. He was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read History.

Always a stylish, somewhat Edwardian figure, in middle age he began taking snuff and sporting a monocle.[2]

Shell Oil

He joined Shell after his graduation via its subsidiary the Asiatic Petroleum Company. He was posted in 1935 to Egypt and later to Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, and the Middle East. At the beginning of World War II he wanted to enlist, but was told his greatest contribution would be to continue his work in the petroleum industry to ensure fuel for the British Eighth Army in Egypt.[2]

At the end of war Barran was posted to India, but returned to London in 1947. Through the 1950s he held positions in trade relations, marketing, and economics. In 1954 he negotiated a production agreement with the Venezuelan government, and in 1956 an agreement with the Kuwait government. In 1958 he became president of the Asiatic Petroleum Corporation in New York. Barran returned to London in 1961 and was elected a director of Shell Transport and Trading. In 1967 Barran was elected chairman of Shell Transport and Trading and by 1969 he was the highest paid person in the UK with a salary of £72,818.[3] In 1970 he became chairman of the Committee of Managing Directors of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group. He was the first British (Shell) member to head the committee.[2]

Other board positions

Barran also held directorships with British Insulated Callender's Cables, British Leyland, British Steel, General Accident, and Glaxo. Following the death of Lord Armstrong of Sanderstead in 1980, Barran was chairman of the Midland Bank from 1980 until 1982. Barran retired as a director of Shell in 1983.[2]



 

Event Participated in

EventStartEndLocation(s)Description
Bilderberg/196731 March 19672 April 1967St John's College (Cambridge)
UK
United Kingdom
Possibly the only Bilderberg meeting held in a university college rather than a hotel (St. John's College, Cambridge)
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References

  1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1396148/Sir-David-Barran.html
  2. a b c d e https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1396148/Sir-David-Barran.html
  3. Lumsden, Andrew; O'Connor, Gillian (8 September 1969). "The pay, the power and the wealth at the top of British industry". The Times. p. 21.
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