International maritime design, engineering and risk management consultancy BMT Group announced the appointment of Sir John Hood KNZM as Chairman of BMT Group Ltd. with effect from October 1, 2015, following the retirement of Dr. Neil Cross at the end of BMT’s financial year on September 30.
Sir John Hood is a nonexecutive director of BG Group plc and WPP plc, chairman of Urenco Ltd (from which he will retire later this year), Matakina Ltd., and Study Group Ltd.; president and chief executive officer of the Robertson Foundation; and chair of the Rhodes Trust and Teach For All. For five years, Sir John served as vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford and, before that, as vice-chancellor of the University of Auckland after a successful career at Fletcher Challenge, New Zealand’s largest industrial conglomerate.
With a Bachelor of Engineering and a PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Auckland, Sir John was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford where he read for an MPhil in Management Studies. He was appointed a Knight Companion to the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2014.