The head of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the chair of HSBC are among the business leaders to be recognised this year in King Charles’s birthday honours list.
Julia Hoggett, a former banker who has been the chief executive of the London Stock Exchange since 2021, has been awarded a damehood for her services to business and finance.
Hoggett, who joined the LSE from the Financial Conduct Authority, has called for the heads of UK companies to be paid more in order to match their counterparts in the US. She has argued that UK companies are finding it difficult to attract executives because they receive higher pay packages across the Atlantic.
Hoggett is facing a battle to attract more companies to list on the LSE after firms have moved their primary listing from London, including the betting company Flutter, which is moving its listing to the US, and the Anglo-German travel company Tui, which has voted to list its shares in Germany. The building materials firm CRH shifted its main stock market listing to the US last year.
The City veteran Mark Tucker, who is the current chair of HSBC, will receive a knighthood for his services to the economy.
Tucker, a passionate football fan who once played professionally, became HSBC’s chair in October 2017 after leading AIA Group. He has more than 35 years’ experience in the financial services industry in Asia, the US, the UK and Africa, and is a former chief executive of the insurer Prudential.
Other prominent business figures who have been recognised include Alan Jope, the former chief executive of Unilever, who has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to business. Jope stepped down last year after 38 years at the consumer goods company, whose brands include Dove soap and Marmite.
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During his tenure, Unilever sold a large tea-making division and unified the company’s previously split structure in London, but the company failed in an attempt to take over GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer healthcare arm.
Energy company executives have also been honoured. Greg Jackson, the chief executive and co-founder of Octopus Energy Group, which has 7.2 million customers across 18 countries, has been made a CBE.
Alistair Phillips-Davies, the chief executive of SSE, who has headed the electricity infrastructure company for a decade, has also been made a CBE.
Claire Enders, who founded Enders Analysis, the technology, media and telecoms research company in 1997, is made aCBE, as is Jennifer Daly, the chief executive of the FTSE 100 housebuilder Taylor Wimpey, who joined from Redrow in 2014 and who is one of the UK’s most prominent female chief executives.