Director of Finance

John Banfield was born in 1947 in London and was educated at Haberdashers Aske’s School and St John’s College Cambridge.

John joined Mobil Oil Corporation in 1969 in London and held positions in the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Cyprus, the Netherlands and Germany. In 1994 he was appointed Chairman Mobil Oil Co Ltd in London and in 1996 Vice President Mobil Europe. He retired from Mobil in 2001.

In 2002 John was appointed Non Executive Director Surrey Oaklands NHS Trust and in 2005 Deputy Chairman Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Trust. He retired from the National Health Service in 2011.

John is a member of the MCC and a Fellow of the Energy Institute. He was formerly a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Vice President of the Institute of Petroleum, a Companion of the Institute of Management, President of the Oil Industries Club and for ten years Chairman of Governors at Box Hill School, an independent school in Surrey

During 2006 John chaired a study of diocesan finances requested by Synod. In 2007 he was co-opted onto the Standing and Finance Committee and subsequently assumed a broader executive portfolio which includes oversight of diocesan finance and organisation, membership of the council for Christ Church and the Ras Morbat Clinic in Aden and coordination of UK based organisations with an interest in the diocese including the Foundation, JEMT, All Hallows by the Tower, the Diocese of Exeter and the Association of the Friends of the Diocese. In 2011 John was appointed an honorary Lay Canon of St Christopher’s Cathedral in Bahrain.

John lives in Surrey with his wife Mary who was Honorary Secretary of the Association of the Friends of the Diocese from 1991 to 2012.