John McFarlane

Last updated

John McFarlane
OBE
John McFarlane.jpg
Born14 June 1947 (1947-06-14) (age 76)
NationalityBritish
Australian [1]
Alma mater University of Edinburgh
Cranfield School of Management
London Business School

John McFarlane OBE (born 14 June 1947) is a British businessman. He served as group chairman of Barclays from 2015 to 2019. From 2020 to 2023, McFarlane served as Chairman of Westpac.

Contents

Early life

He was born in Dumfries and attended Dumfries Academy. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh, Cranfield and the London Business School.

Career

He began his career in manufacturing with Ford of Europe in 1969, subsequently having a career in banking. He spent eighteen years with Citibank, ultimately as head of Citibank in Ireland and the United Kingdom. [2] In 1993, he became Group Executive Director of Standard Chartered Plc. based in London and Hong Kong. He was chief executive of the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ), one of Australia's leading banks, after a decade of service, during which time he turned around the financial performance of the bank, and spearheaded an effort, called "Breakout", to transform the Bank. He retired in 2007. [3]

In October 2008, he joined the board of the Royal Bank of Scotland as a non-executive director. [4] He was appointed to the board of Aviva plc in September 2011 and became chairman in July 2012. [5] [6] He was previously deputy chairman and chairman designate and became executive deputy chairman in May 2012. He was president of the International Monetary Conference (the annual meeting of the heads of the world's major banks and central banks) and was chairman of the Australian Bankers' Association. While in the United Kingdom, he was a member of the Bank of England Financial Law Review Panel; in 1992, he chaired The McFarlane Report - the review of "The Future Development of Auditing in the United Kingdom and Ireland". More recently, he served as a member of the governing body of the Economics Research Institute for the Association of South East Asian Nations & East Asia. In December 2013, he was appointed chairman of FirstGroup. [7] [8]

In September 2014, he was appointed chairman of Barclays and joined the board with effect from 1 January 2015. [9] [10] He was appointed executive chairman of Barclays in July 2015 until a permanent replacement could be found for their departing chief executive Antony Jenkins. [11] He is also chairman of TheCityUK.

McFarlane contributed to an anthology of writing that was published in October 2018 and produced by Labour in the City, which examines the challenges facing the banking sector a decade on from the financial crisis. [12] [13] In November 2018, Barclays announced that McFarlane was stepping down as chairman in May 2019. [14]

In April 2020, McFarlane was appointed to the board of Westpac [15] where he served as chairman until December, 2023. [16]

Honours

In the 1995 Birthday Honours, McFarlane was awarded the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for "services to the Finance Industry". [17] In 2001 he received the Centenary Medal for "service to Australian society in business leadership". [18] He has also received banking and securities fellowships in the UK, Australia and Hong Kong, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Australia Bank</span> Australian multinational bank

National Australia Bank is one of the four largest financial institutions in Australia in terms of market capitalisation, earnings and customers. NAB was ranked the world's 21st-largest bank measured by market capitalisation and 52nd-largest bank in the world as measured by total assets in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commonwealth Bank</span> Australian multinational bank

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), or CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of financial services, including retail, business and institutional banking, funds management, superannuation, insurance, investment, and broking services. The Commonwealth Bank is the largest Australian listed company on the Australian Securities Exchange as of August 2015, with brands including Bankwest, Colonial First State Investments, ASB Bank, Commonwealth Securities (CommSec) and Commonwealth Insurance (CommInsure). Its former constituent parts were the Commonwealth Trading Bank of Australia, the Commonwealth Savings Bank of Australia, and the Commonwealth Development Bank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aviva</span> British insurance company

Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 18 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general insurer and a leading life and pensions provider. Aviva is also the second largest general insurer in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ANZ (bank)</span> Australian multinational bank

The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) is a multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is Australia's second-largest bank by assets and fourth-largest bank by market capitalisation.

St.George Bank is an Australian bank with its headquarters in Sydney. Since a 2008 merger, the bank has been part of Westpac, having previously been an independent legal entity. In 2010, St.George was deregistered as a company and ceased to be a standalone authorised deposit-taking institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Diamond (banker)</span> Anglo-American banker and business executive

Robert Edward Diamond Jr. is an American banker and former chief executive officer of Barclays plc. In 2010, he became its president and deputy group chief executive; and in January 2011, succeeded John Varley as group chief executive of Barclays.

David Raymond Morgan is an Australian businessman. He was respectively managing director, executive chairman and chairman of J.C. Flowers & Co. in charge of Europe and Asia Pacific 2009 to 2016. He also served on the firm's Management Committee. He was also a chairman of J.C. Flowers (Australia) Pty Limited and a global operating partner of JC Flowers & Co. LLC.

Butterfield, officially The Bank of N. T. Butterfield & Son Limited, is a financial services company founded and headquartered in Bermuda. It provides services to clients from Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Guernsey and Jersey, where its principal banking operations are located, and The Bahamas, Switzerland, Singapore and the United Kingdom, where it offers specialized financial services. Banking services comprise deposit, cash management and lending for individual, business and institutional clients. Wealth management services are composed of trust, private banking, asset management and custody. In Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Guernsey, Butterfield offers both banking and wealth management. In The Bahamas, Singapore and Switzerland, Butterfield offers select wealth management services. In the UK, Butterfield offers residential property lending. In Jersey, it offers banking and wealth management services. Butterfield is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the Bermuda Stock Exchange.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macquarie Group</span> Australian investment bank and financial services company

Macquarie Group Limited is an Australian global financial services group. Headquartered and listed in Australia, Macquarie employs more than 20,000 staff in 34 markets, is the world's largest infrastructure asset manager and Australia's top ranked mergers and acquisitions adviser, with more than A$871 billion in assets under management.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westpac</span> Australian multinational bank

Westpac Banking Corporation, known simply as Westpac, is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered at Westpac Place in Sydney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Absa Bank Uganda Limited</span> Commercial bank in Uganda

Absa Bank Uganda Limited, formerly known as Barclays Bank of Uganda Limited, is a commercial bank in Uganda. It is licensed by the Bank of Uganda, the central bank and national banking regulator. The bank is a subsidiary of Absa Group Limited, a financial services conglomerate, based in South Africa, with banking subsidiaries in 12 African countries and representative offices in two other African countries. Absa Bank Group, whose shares trade on the JSE Limited, was reported to have total assets in excess of US$91 billion, as of October 2019. 

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergio Ermotti</span> Swiss banker

Sergio Pietro Ermotti is a Swiss manager and investment banker. In April 2021, Ermotti was elected Chairman of Swiss Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, succeeding Walter Kielholz. He was the Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UBS Group AG from November 2011 to October 2020 and regained that position in 2023. He is also a board member of the Institute of International Finance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barclays</span> British multinational banking and financial services company

Barclays plc is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rajeev Kakar</span> India banker

Rajeev Kakar, an experienced banker and a serial business founder and entrepreneur, currently serves as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Commercial International Bank, Egypt; Gulf International Bank, Bahrain and KSA; Eurobank Ergasias SA, Greece and Satin Creditcare Network, India. He also serves, since 2009, as a member of the Global Advisory Board of the prestigious University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, and also as a Member of the Industry Advisory Board of the SP Jain School of Global Management since 2011. As a Board Member at Eurobank, Rajeev also serves as the Chairman of the Board Remuneration Committee and Vice Chairman of the Board Risk Committee.

Brian Hartzer is the CEO of Quantium Health and is an Australian business executive who is the Chairman of BeforePay. Previously he was the managing director and chief executive officer of Westpac from 2014 to 2020.

The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, also known as the Banking Royal Commission and the Hayne Royal Commission, was a royal commission established on 14 December 2017 by the Australian government pursuant to the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to inquire into and report on misconduct in the banking, superannuation, and financial services industry. The establishment of the commission followed revelations in the media of a culture of greed within several Australian financial institutions. A subsequent parliamentary inquiry recommended a royal commission, noting the lack of regulatory intervention by the relevant government authorities, and later revelations that financial institutions were involved in money laundering for drug syndicates, turned a blind eye to terrorism financing, and ignored statutory reporting responsibilities and impropriety in foreign exchange trading.

The Australian Banking Association (ABA), formerly the Australian Bankers' Association, is the trade association for the Australian banking industry. The ABA was founded in 1985 and is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The ABA represents twenty-two banks and associate members. It provides analysis, advice, and advocacy for the banking industry and contributes to the public policy development on banking and other financial services.

Olga Louise Zoutendijk is a global business woman and banker. She has held senior executive roles in Asia, Australia, Europe and the United States. In May 2016, Zoutendijk was appointed chair of the Supervisory Board of ABN AMRO Group and ABN AMRO Bank. She became the first woman to be appointed chair of a Supervisory Board of a stock exchange listed company in the history of the Netherlands. On 10 April 2019 she was appointed as a member of the board of directors at Julius Baer Group.

Harriet-Ann Omobolanle (Bola) Adesola is the senior vice-chairman at Standard Chartered Bank Group where she was previously the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank for Nigeria and West Africa. Adesola has over 33 years of experience in the banking sector.

Saviour Chibiya, is a Zambian economist and corporate executive, who is the group executive for regional operations at Absa Group Limited, effective November 2021. In this position, he is a member of the group executive committee. He reports directly to the group CEO of Absa Group. He is based at the group headquarters, in Johannesburg, South Africa.

References

  1. "John MCFARLANE - Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)". Companies House. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  2. "The Times & The Sunday Times". www.thetimes.co.uk. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  3. Williams, Ruth (13 June 2007). "No more Sekrets for McFarlane". The Age. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  4. Armitstead, Louise; Kleinman, Mark (27 August 2008). "Royal Bank of Scotland shakes up boardroom with new directors". Daily Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  5. "Our Board". www.aviva.com. 23 May 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  6. Loddington, Amy (12 September 2014). "Barclays announce John McFarlane as new Chairman". Financial Reporter. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  7. "FirstGroup appoints John McFarlane as Chairman". 6 December 2013. Archived from the original on 13 December 2013.
  8. "FirstGroup appoints new chairman". BBC News. 6 December 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  9. "John McFarlane appointed to succeed Sir David Walker as Chairman" (PDF). 12 September 2014.
  10. "Barclays appoints Aviva's John McFarlane as chairman". www.ft.com. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  11. "Barclays sacks chief executive Antony Jenkins". BBC. 8 July 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  12. Clark, Andrew (1 November 2018). "We must turn the page on the public perceptions of finance" . Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  13. McFarlane, John (31 October 2018). "Ten years on - we must not forget the lessons we have learnt". Ten years on: banking beyond the crisis (PDF). Labour in the City. pp. 19–21. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  14. "Barclays chairman John 'Mack the Knife' McFarlane to step down" . The Independent. 2 November 2018. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  15. Ryan, Peter (23 January 2020). "Westpac picks John McFarlane as new chairman to deal with money laundering scandal". ABC News. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  16. Muroi, Millie (15 October 2023). "Westpac appoints Steven Gregg as new chairman". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
  17. "No. 54066". The London Gazette (Supplement). 16 June 1995. p. 12.
  18. "Mr John MCFARLANE - Centenary Medal". Australian Honours Search Facility. Australian Government. 1 January 2001. Retrieved 1 January 2023. For service to Australian society in business leadership
Business positions
Preceded by
Don Mercer
Chief Executive Officer of ANZ Banking Group
1997 2007
Succeeded by
Mike Smith
Preceded by Group Chairman of Barclays
2015 2019
Succeeded by
Nigel Higgins
Preceded by
Antony Jenkins (as Group Chief Executive)
Executive Chairman of Barclays
2015
Succeeded by
Jes Staley (as Group Chief Executive)
Preceded by Chairman of Westpac Banking Corporation
2020 present
Incumbent