Wanted: Megabank chief willing to work for half pay
LONDON—Help wanted: Someone to oversee $3 trillion in assets and 221,000 workers. Must be worldly, willing to travel constantly, knowledgeable about Chinese politics and able to deal with a demanding boss. Salary: Half of what you would make in the U.S.
HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, is looking for a new chief executive. Its current CEO, Noel Quinn, surprised markets Tuesday when he said he would retire soon, once a successor is named. Quinn, 62 years old, has been in the role for just under five years and is leaving after a year of robust profits and a 21% rise in HSBC’s London-listed stock price.
Quinn hinted at the unique demands of the job when he described how, over Christmas, he longed to work a bit less and have more time for his family. One factor that influenced Quinn’s decision to retire now was the desire to have a new CEO in place before Chairman Mark Tucker himself retired, according to a person familiar with the matter. Tucker hasn’t said when he will retire, though the HSBC board follows U.K.
industry guidelines that limit a chairman’s term to nine years. Tucker would hit his limit in late 2026. By retiring now, Quinn will prevent a potential situation in which both the chairman and CEO jobs become vacant at around the same time.
Unlike in the U.S., where bank CEOs and board chairs are often the same person, in the U.K. the roles are held separately, giving chairmen much more power over companies. Tucker, a former head of the larger insurer AIA Group, will now get to choose his third CEO since becoming chairman in fall 2017.
Tucker selected HSBC veteran John Flint shortly after taking over, then pushed him out less than two years later. A potential obstacle to finding a successor is pay. Quinn
. Read more on livemint.com
