And ICBC's board got a new member: John Thornton, who retired as Goldman's co-president in 2003 to teach at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

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There seem also to have been tensions with two other members of the executive committee, John Thornton and John Thain also investment bankers rather than traders.

ECONOMIST: Goldman Sachs

The alternative is to find another chairman, possibly a former Goldman Sachs banker, John Thornton, who is now a professor in Beijing and an HSBC director.

ECONOMIST: HSBC's top team

John Thornton of Austin Ventures, a local venture-capital firm, says his company financed as many Austin-based high-tech companies in 1996 as in the previous five years taken together.

ECONOMIST: Silicon Valley: Deep in the heart of Texas | The

The 1997 Forbes 400 issue chronicled how John Thornton managed to outbid Quark, Inc. cofounder and former Forbes 400 member Farhad Ebrahimi for a choice 1, 300-acre ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

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Holly found herself sharing a bill with a wide range of artists including Billy Bob Thornton, Train, John Mellencamp and Duncan Sheik, in addition to playing a string of shows throughout Europe opening for Keith Urban.

BBC: David White: Holly Williams interview

John Ziegelbauer, a partner with Grant Thornton in Washington, D.

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This commands cross party support with such luminaries as the Lib Dem Lord Avebury, the Conservative Lord Deben (the artist formerly known as John Gummer), and Labour's Lady Thornton - and the Dalit Solidarity Network, which campaigns on behalf of those at the bottom of the South Asian caste system (sometimes called "untouchables") is organising a mass lobby in support.

BBC: Week ahead