Sir John Rose is one of Britain's most respected businessmen and his likely retirement as chief executive of Rolls-Royce in two years is a serious concern to shareholders in the aero-engine manufacturer.

Institutional investors have expressed dismay that Sir John's 12-year tenure at Rolls may be coming to an end, although there is hope that he could be encouraged to remain in the FTSE 100 as a non-executive chairman somewhere.

Rolls-Royce, a company with a reputation for being conservative, has already taken steps to begin the succession process. It has asked the Government to consider waiving a rule requiring that the company's chief executive be a British citizen. Rolls remains an important supplier to the Ministry of Defence, but 90 per cent of its revenues now come from outside the UK. The company is understood to want any future search for a chief executive to reflect its globalised structure.

Under the stewardship of Sir John, who is 55, Rolls has emerged as the world's second-largest engine maker and it invests billions of pounds to research and develop the next generation of fuel-efficient machines.

Rolls's order book is worth £53.5 billion, but Sir John is quick to point out that engine sales are only one part of its business. Rolls now gets more than half its revenue from maintaining the engines it has already sold, which has given it a reliable stream of income and dampened the effects of the boom-and-bust aerospace cycle.

Sir John, who was born in Blantyre, Malawi, was educated at Charterhouse and the University of St Andrews.

Despite heading one of Britain's most important companies, he has kept a relatively low public profile, but he is a member of a small group of business advisers to the Government. He is also a fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, despite studying psychology at university.

Sir John, who is married with two sons and a daughter, joined Rolls in 1984, after working for First National Bank of Chicago, and became its chief executive in 1996.

He is a member of the JPMorgan International Council, of the CBI International Advisory Board and of the Englefield Advisory Board and is a trustee of the Eden Project. He was knighted in 2003 and was made a Commandeur de la Legion d'Honneur in France this year.

Sir John lists his interests as skiing, sailing, scuba-diving, tennis, theatre and the arts.