John L Thornton

John L. Thornton is a Professor and Director of the Global Leadership Program at the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing. He is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Mr. Thornton is a director of HSBC Holdings plc and a director and non-executive Chairman of HSBC North America Holdings Inc. He retired in 2003 as President and Co-Chief Operating Officer of the Goldman Sachs Group and as a member of the firm’s board of directors. Mr. Thornton is a director of Ford Motor Company, Intel, News Corporation and China Unicom. He is a trustee, advisory board member or member of the Asia Society, General Atlantic, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), China Reform Forum, National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, China Institute, McKinsey Knowledge Council, the Hotchkiss School, Council on Foreign Relations, China Foreign Affairs University and the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management. In 2007, Institutional Investor Magazine named him one of 40 individuals who have had the greatest influence on global financial markets over the past forty years. In 2008, he was awarded the Friendship Award of the People's Republic of China, the highest honor accorded to a non-Chinese citizen. Mr. Thornton received an A.B. in history from Harvard College, a B.A./M.A. in jurisprudence from Oxford University and an M.P.P.M. from the Yale School of Management. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2007.