William Samuel Hugh Laidlaw (born 3 January 1956, Kensington) is the chief executive officer of Centrica, the British natural gas and electricity company.
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He is the son of Sir Christopher Laidlaw (1922-2010), former Chairman of BP. Sam Laidlaw attended Eton College and studied Law at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge[1] 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 Director of the Management School for seven years.
He was executive vice president of Global Business Development of the California-based Chevron Corporation from May 2003 and chief executive officer of Enterprise Oil in 2002 (which was bought under his leadership by Shell in 2002 for £3.5bn). The company also faced a hostile takeover from Eni, the Rome-based oil company.
He joined Centrica in July 2006 taking over from Sir Roy Gardner. He is Chairman of the Executive Committee and the Disclosure Committee. In January 2008, he was appointed a non-executive director of HSBC Holdings plc and in December 2010 he was appointed as the lead non-executive director on the board of the Department for Transport. He is also a member of the UK Prime Minister's Business Advisory Group. Previously he was executive vice president of the Chevron Corporation, chief executive officer at Enterprise Oil and president and chief operating officer at Amerada Hess. Until August 2007, he was a non-executive director of Hanson plc. He is a trustee of the medical charity RAFT.
He has been Chairman of the Petroleum Science and Technology Institute, based in Aberdeen, and President of the United Kingdom Offshore Operators Association.
He is married with three sons (Fergus, Humphrey and Arthur, including two born in June 1990 and September 1992) and a daughter (Clemmie). He lives in Kensington and Chelsea, London. He married Deborah (Debbie) Morris-Adams in Aylesbury Vale in Buckinghamshire in April 1989.