Parker to succeed Sterling as P&O chairman

Parker to succeed Sterling as P&O chairman    London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. has appointed John Parker to be chairman when long-standing executive chairman Jeffrey Sterling steps down next May.
   Parker is a former deputy chairman of P&O Princess Cruises and a non-executive director of the cruise shipping company Carnival.
   Trained as a naval architect, Parker has worked in the shipbuilding, engineering and other capital intensive industries.
   He is chairman of the electricity company National Grid Transco and the buildings material provider RMC Group, although he will be standing down from the latter position in January.
   Parker will join the board of directors of P&O, as deputy chairman, in February.
   Sterling has been the executive chairman and the figurehead of the P&O group since 1983. Under his leadership, he has de-merged the cruise shipping arm of the group, divested from investment property activities, invested heavily in ports, merged P&O Containers with Nedlloyd Lines, and subsequently sold the group’s bulk shipping, European contract logistics and most of its container shipping activities.
   Sterling worked on the London Stock Exchange from 1955 to 1957 before going into investment banking. He then founded his own company, Sterling Guarantee Trust Ltd., which acquired P&O in 1985.