John Louis Marden, CBE, JP (12 February 1919 – 18 March 1999) was a British businessman and philanthropist.

[1] After Cambridge, in 1946 Marden joined his father's firm as a trainee in the secretarial and shipping division before he was transferred to the insurance department.

In the 1970s, the four largest traditional British firms, Jardine Matheson, Swire, Hutchison, and Wheelock Marden, were all undergoing rapid decline and facing challenges from up and coming Hong Kong Chinese entrepreneurs.

[1] Douglas Clague lost control of Hutchison Whampoa in 1975 through disastrous speculation in foreign currency and on the stock market.

The Hongkong Land faced a constant threat from Li Ka-shing's Cheung Kong Holdings and nearly went under in the early 1980s.