George Mathewson

Last updated

Sir George Mathewson
Born
George Ross Mathewson [1]

(1940-05-14) 14 May 1940 (age 83)
Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland
Alma mater University of St Andrews
Known forTransformation of RBS

Sir George Ross Mathewson, CBE FCIBS FRSE (born 14 May 1940) [2] is a Scottish businessman. He is best known for transforming the Scottish bank The Royal Bank of Scotland from a struggling regional player into a quasi global bank with parallels to Citigroup or HSBC. He was described by the Sunday Herald , as "banking's answer to Bruce Springsteen".

Contents

He was the convener of Scotland's Council of Economic Advisers.

Early life and education

Mathewson was born in Dunfermline, the son of George Mathewson, an electrical engineer from Perth, and Charlotte Gordon Ross. He was educated at Perth Academy and the University of St Andrews' Queen's College in Dundee, [3] from where he graduated in 1961 with a degree in mathematics and applied physics. [1]

Career

Early career

Mathewson started his career as a lecturer at St Andrews University where he did a PhD, before moving to United States to work for Bell Aerospace as an engineer in Buffalo, New York (1967–72). He was attracted back to Scotland by the opening up of the North Sea to oil exploration and joined venture capital group 3i, then called Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation (1972–81). He was chief executive of the state-funded economic regeneration organisation the Scottish Development Agency (now called Scottish Enterprise) from 1981 to 1987. [3]

Royal Bank of Scotland (1987–2000)

Mathewson joined the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is headquartered in the Scottish capital city of Edinburgh, in 1987 as director of strategic planning and development. When Mathewson became RBS's chief executive in 1992 the bank had been severely weakened by bad debts arising from poor lending decisions. To get the bank onto an even keel, Mathewson commissioned 'Project Columbus', which transformed the processes and structure of RBS's UK retail banking operations and included a tightening of credit controls, a focus on sales and a modernisation of processes and management. [3]

The defining moment of Mathewson's career came with the £21 billion takeover of the much larger UK bank National Westminster Bank in February 2000. Soon after the NatWest acquisition, Mathewson stepped down as RBS's CEO, handing the reins to his deputy Fred Goodwin, who assumed responsibility for integrating NatWest. Mathewson became deputy chairman in 2000 and chairman in 2001. He stood down in 2006. [3]

Honours

Mathewson was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1985 New Year Honours. [4] He was knighted in the 1999 New Year Honours for services to economic development in Scotland and banking. [5]

Personal life

In 1966, Mathewson married Sheila Alexandra Graham Bennett, daughter of Eon Bennett, and has two sons. [1] She died in 2023. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NatWest Group</span> British banking and insurance holding company

NatWest Group plc is a British banking and insurance holding company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The group operates a wide variety of banking brands offering personal and business banking, private banking, investment banking, insurance and corporate finance. In the United Kingdom, its main subsidiary companies are National Westminster Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest Markets and Coutts. The group issues banknotes in Scotland and Northern Ireland; as of 2014, the Royal Bank of Scotland was the only bank in the UK to continue to print £1 notes.

Frederick Anderson Goodwin FRSE FCIBS is a Scottish chartered accountant and former banker who was Chief executive officer (CEO) of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) between 2001 and 2009.

Sir Thomas Fulton Wilson McKillop, FRS, FRSE is a Scottish chemist, who was CEO of AstraZeneca PLC from 1999 until 2006 and chairman of the RBS Group from 2006 until 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Catto, 1st Baron Catto</span>

Thomas Sivewright Catto, 1st Baron Catto, CBE, PC was a Scottish businessman and later Governor of the Bank of England.

Sir Sydney H. Wylie Samuelson was a British film director and cinematographer. He was appointed in 1991 by the government of the UK as the first British Film Commissioner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RBS International</span> International banking arm of NatWest Group headquartered in Jersey, Channel Islands.

The Royal Bank of Scotland International, trading under the NatWest International (retail), RBS International (institutional), Coutts Crown Dependencies and Isle of Man Bank brands, is the offshore banking arm of NatWest Group. It provides a range of services to personal, business, commercial, corporate and financial intermediary customers from its base in St. Helier, Jersey.

Henry Dennistoun "Dennis" Stevenson, Baron Stevenson of Coddenham, is a British businessman and former chairman of HBOS. He sat on the crossbenches in the House of Lords from 1999 until his retirement in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Bank of Scotland</span> Scottish bank

The Royal Bank of Scotland plc is a major retail and commercial bank in Scotland. It is one of the retail banking subsidiaries of NatWest Group, together with NatWest and Ulster Bank. The Royal Bank of Scotland has around 700 branches, mainly in Scotland, though there are branches in many larger towns and cities throughout England and Wales. The bank is completely separate from the fellow Edinburgh-based bank, the Bank of Scotland, which pre-dates the Royal Bank by 32 years. The Royal Bank of Scotland was established to provide a bank with strong Hanoverian and Whig ties.

Sir James Henry Leigh-Pemberton is a British banker and the incumbent Receiver-General for the Duchy of Cornwall. He served as the executive chairman of UK Financial Investments until 2018 when the government owned company was closed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1997 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours</span>

The 1997 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours were officially announced in two supplements to The London Gazette of 1 August 1997 and marked the May 1997 resignation of the Prime Minister, John Major.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denise Kingsmill, Baroness Kingsmill</span> British Baroness (born 1947)

Denise Patricia Byrne Kingsmill, Baroness Kingsmill CBE is a British Labour peer. She was appointed as a life peer in 2006 after practising as a solicitor in personal injury, trade union and employment law.

Sir William "Willie" Purves, was a Scottish banker until his retirement in 1998. He was the first Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings following the creation of a holding company to act as parent to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the Midland Bank following the former's acquisition of Midland in 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NatWest</span> British retail and commercial bank

National Westminster Bank, commonly known as NatWest, is a major retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom based in London, England. It was established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster Bank. In 2000, it became part of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which was re-named NatWest Group in 2020. Following ringfencing of the group's core domestic business, the bank became a direct subsidiary of NatWest Holdings; NatWest Markets comprises the non-ringfenced investment banking arm. The British government currently owns 39% of NatWest Group after spending £45 billion bailing out the lender in 2008; the proportion at one point was 54.7%. NatWest International is a trading name of RBS International, which also sits outside the ringfence.

Benny Higgins is a Scottish banker, and is the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Tesco Bank.

Sir Ian David Grant FRAgS was a British corporate director who was chairman and first commissioner of the Crown Estate. He also served as the Chairman of the Scottish Exhibition Centre from 2002 to 2013. Grant was knighted by Elizabeth II in 2010.

Ross Maxwell McEwan is a New Zealand banker, and the chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director of National Australia Bank.

The King's Birthday Honours 1950 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of the King, and were published in supplements to the London Gazette of 2 June 1950 for the British Empire, Australia, Ceylon and New Zealand.

Rupert Nicholas Hambro CBE was a British banker and businessman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alison Rose (banker)</span> British banker

Dame Alison Marie Rose-Slade is a British banker, who was chief executive (CEO) of NatWest Group from November 2019 to July 2023. She became the first woman to lead a major UK lender after leading government investigations into the poor representation of women in business. She was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2023 Birthday Honours. Later that year, she resigned from her position at NatWest for what she admitted was a "serious error of judgement", after she broke client confidentiality in relation to the closure of a client's account.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Kemp Wright</span> Scottish banker

Sir Alexander Kemp Wright KBE DL (1859–1933) was a Scottish banker mainly associated with the Royal Bank of Scotland but with multiple banking roles. He founded the National Savings Movement.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 2646. ISBN   0-9711966-2-1.
  2. ↑ "Birthdays today". The Telegraph. 14 May 2013. Archived from the original on 14 May 2013. Retrieved 12 May 2014. Sir George Mathewson, Chairman, Royal Bank of Scotland Group, 2001–06, 73
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Business profile: Dynasty ends as a banking royal abdicates". The Daily Telegraph. 19 April 2006.
  4. ↑ "No. 49969". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1984. p. 8.
  5. ↑ "No. 55354". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1998. p. 2.
  6. ↑ "Mathewson". Register. The Times. No. 74137. London. 1 July 2023. col 2, p. 74.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.