Sir John Parker’s appointment as chairman of mining group Anglo American marks the latest stage in a career that has seen him rise from modest beginnings in the shipyards of Belfast to become one of the most experienced executives in the FTSE 100.

A native of Northern Ireland, Sir John joined Harland & Wolff in 1958 at 17 as an apprentice naval architect, ultimately rising to become managing director at Austin Pickersgill, the Tyneside-based shipbuilders. He was then made deputy chief executive in charge of merchant shipbuilding at British Shipbuilders, the publicly-owned group that nationalised the UK’s shipbuilding industry in 1977.