John L. Thornton was elected to the Ford Motor Company board of directors in 1996. He serves on the compensation, talent and culture committee; finance committee; and nominating and governance committee.  Mr. Thornton serves as the board’s lead independent director.

Mr. Thornton has served as Executive Chairman of Barrick Gold Corporation since April 2014. He also serves as Non-Executive Chairman of PineBridge Investments, a global asset manager. Mr. Thornton serves on the Boards of Divergent Technologies, a digital production system company focused on the automotive and aerospace-defense industries, and SparkCognition, an industrial artificial intelligence company.

He is a Professor of the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing and serves as the Director of its Global Leadership Program. He is also an Advisory Board member of Tsinghua’s School of Economics and Management and its School of Public Policy and Management. He is also Chairman Emeritus of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Mr. Thornton retired as President and Director of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. in 2003.

Mr. Thornton also previously served as Chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia and as Co-Chief Executive of Goldman Sachs International, overseeing the firm’s business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Mr. Thornton is Co-Chair of the Asia Society, and is also a trustee, advisory board member, or member of, the China Investment Corporation (CIC), King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, McKinsey Advisory Council, Schwarzman Scholars, and the African Leadership Academy.