Sam Laidlaw

William Samuel Hugh Laidlaw (born 3 January 1956, Kensington) is the Executive Chairman of Neptune Energy, the independent E&P company. He is former chief executive officer of Centrica, the British natural gas and electricity company.

Early life He is the son of Sir Christophor Laidlaw (1922–2010), a manager at BP who went on to be deputy chairman, and was later chairman of computer maker ICL. Sam Laidlaw attended Eton College and studied law at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, gaining an MA in 1977. He qualified as a solicitor in 1979 with the Macfarlanes law company. He obtained an MBA in 1981 from the INSEAD Business School in Fontainebleau, France; his father was for a time the chairman of the school's UK advisory body.

He joined Centrica in July 2006, taking over from Sir Roy Gardner and becoming chairman of the executive committee and the disclosure committee.

In 2015, he founded Neptune Energy, an international oil and gas exploration and production company, and is the firm’s first Executive Chairman.

He has also been a member of the UK Government’s Energy Advisory Panel, President of the UK Offshore Operators Association, a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group, the Senior Director for the Department of Transport and a non-executive director of both HSBC Holdings plc and Hanson plc. He is a non-executive director of Rio Tinto plc and Chairman of the National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB).

Personal life Laidlaw married Deborah (Debbie) Morris-Adams in Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire in April 1989; they have three sons and a daughter.