New Appointment to the Rolls-Royce Group plc Board

20 January 2005                                

              New Appointment to the Rolls-Royce Group plc Board               

Rolls-Royce has appointed Iain Conn as a non-executive director with effect
from 20 January 2005.

Iain Conn is an executive director of BP p.l.c. and has regional responsibility
for Europe, Russia, the Middle East, the Caspian and Africa. He also has a
range of functional responsibilities, including Health, Safety and Environment,
Human Resource Management, Marketing, IT and Technology. He previously served
as Chief Executive of BP's petrochemicals segment, the world's third largest
petrochemicals business.

Commenting on the appointment, Rolls-Royce's Chairman, Simon Robertson, said,
"Iain brings a wealth of experience in running international businesses with a
strong brand. I am delighted that he will be joining our Board."

A biography of Iain Conn is attached.

Iain Conn

In his role as an executive director of BP p.l.c. Iain Conn has regional
responsibility for Europe, including the UK, together with Russia, the Middle
East, the Caspian and Africa. He has functional responsibility for Health,
Safety & Environment, Human Resource Management, Marketing, Technology, Digital
Business, Security, Procurement and Pensions Operations.

He was previously chief executive of BP's petrochemicals segment, the third
largest petrochemicals business in the world, with over 16,000 employees and
large-scale manufacturing plants in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

Before that he worked in BP's refining and marketing segment as group vice
president responsible for BP's marketing operations in Europe. He was also
responsible for the integration of Veba Oel into the BP organisation and had
regional responsibility for BP in Europe. Additionally he was a member of the
executive committee for BP's global refining and marketing business. Previously
he held responsibility for markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

His career with BP began in 1986 in commercial refining and oil trading but
over the last 12 years he has spent time in various roles in Exploration &
Production, Refining & Marketing and in Group headquarters. He has had overseas
postings to Italy, Colombia and the United States.

Iain was born in Edinburgh, educated in Musselburgh, Scotland and subsequently
studied chemical engineering and management at The Imperial College, London.

Iain is Chairman of the Advisory Board of The Imperial College London Tanaka
Business School.

Personal interests include family, fishing, skiing, music (blues and
classical), saxophone, antiques, food & wine, and travel.

Iain is married and has three children.

For more information contact:

Peter Barnes-Wallis

Director of Finanical Communications

Rolls-Royce plc

65 Buckingham Gate

London SW1E 6AT

Tel: [phone]

Fax:[phone]

Email: [e-mail]