Senior Executive Changes

RNS Number : 7447R

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC

06 May 2009

 



Attn:     NEWS DESKS

             BUSINESS DESKS   

6th May 2009

RBS Group Announces Further Senior Executive Changes

• Brian Hartzer to join RBS from ANZ to assume responsibility for UK Retail, Wealth and Ulster Bank business divisions

• Paul Geddes, currently CEO of UK Retail, to join the Executive Committee as CEO of RBS Insurance

• Chris Sullivan, currently CEO of RBS Insurance, to become CEO of UK Corporate Banking Division

RBS is pleased to announce a number of changes and new appointments to the Group's Executive Committee (Exco). Once these have taken effect, together with the pending change of Chief Financial Officer announced yesterday, all 9 members of the Group's Exco will be new to their posts within the last 14 months, 7 since October of last year. This will complete the management restructuring at this level though further changes will continue elsewhere in the Group. These appointments complement the new strategic direction for RBS set out in February and, once bedded down, will help underpin its implementation.

Brian Hartzer will join RBS and take over responsibility from Gordon Pell as Executive Committee member responsible for the UK Retail, Wealth and Ulster Bank business divisions. These important businesses rank respectively 2nd, 1st and 3rd in their markets. Brian joins from Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ) where he was Chief Executive Officer - Australia and Global Segment Lead for Retail, since October 2008. Brian had been directly responsible for the Retail, SME, and Wealth businesses since 2004, during which time ANZ increased profit in these businesses by 50% and improved its market share of Australian Retail customers from 4th to 2nd position overall as well as being recognised as having the best customer service of any bank in Australia. Gordon Pell will retain the position of Deputy Chief Executive of RBS through the transition period until his retirement, as previously announced, early next year.

Paul Geddes will join the Group's Exco as CEO of RBS' market leading general insurance businesses. He currently runs the UK Retail business reporting to Gordon Pell. Paul became CEO of the Retail business in December 2006, driving a successful period for the division - growing income and strengthening market share and customer satisfaction. That business will now report directly to Brian Hartzer. 

Chris Sullivan, currently CEO of RBS Insurance, will take over from Alan Dickinson to become CEO of the UK Corporate Banking Division (including the SME franchise). The Group's Global Transaction Services division run by Brian Stevenson will also report to him. These businesses hold market positions of 1st in the UK and 5th worldwide respectively. Chris Sullivan has overseen considerable success for RBS Insurance since November 2006 including a record performance in 2008. His background prior to that was in RBS' UK Retail and Corporate businesses. Alan Dickinson will stay on as Chairman of the Division assisting the transition until he retires as planned early next year.

Further to the February announcement of his appointment as Head of Risk and Restructuring (including RBS' new 'Non Core' Division and the pending Asset Protection Scheme portfolio), Nathan Bostock  will join from Abbey National to take up his role on 1st June.

Stephen Hester, RBS Group Chief Executive commented:

 'I am extremely pleased to have been able to move rapidly to assemble a strong leadership team. We have many challenges ahead but really great businesses on which to build. As ever, people are the key to making ambitious strategy a reality. The journey to standalone strength is a 3-5 year one, with tough restructuring to execute against an inclement economic backdrop. I am, however, increasingly confident that we have assembled the 'tools' to do the job.

'We welcome Brian Hartzer to RBS. He is very highly regarded as a retail banker and he will fit into our team very well. We are excited to have him. It is also great to have two excellent internal candidates for major divisional portfolios. Chris and Paul have impressed me since we began working together in recent months and are well suited for their new roles. I am exceptionally grateful to Gordon and Alan for their crucial stewardship and look forward to their continued counsel over the transition period.'

NOTES TO EDITORS

• The changes outlined above are expected to take effect from 31st July subject to regulatory clearance.  

• Brian Hartzer is 42 years old, a joint US and Australian citizen and is married with 4 young children. A Princeton graduate. He joined ANZ in 1999 to run their Consumer Finance business (credit cards, merchant services and personal loans) until 2004. He then took over the full Retail bank portfolio (including SME and Wealth) and in 2008 added the role of Chief Executive Australia for all ANZ business lines, as well as Global Segment Lead for Retail. Prior to joining ANZ Brian was a financial services consultant in New York, San Francisco and Melbourne for 10 years.

• Paul Geddes joined RBS in 2004 as Managing Director, Marketing & Strategy, Retail Banking and now holds the position of CEO, Retail Banking, responsible for around 30,000 people serving over 12m customers. He graduated from Oxford University and started his career with Procter & Gamble in the UK and Europe. From 1997 he worked for Kingfisher plc as Head of Marketing at Superdrug, then Marketing Director of Comet when he also ran the Comet Direct franchise. In 2001, Paul joined the board of Argos as Marketing Director, also running the award winning online business Argos.co.uk. During this time Argos doubled profit, added 50% to sales and won awards for marketing, eCommerce and in 2003 was named Retailer of the Year. 

• Chris Sullivan was appointed the CEO of RBS Insurance in November 2006. His previous role at RBS was as Chief Executive of Retail and Deputy Chief Executive of Retail Markets. Prior to this, Chris was Chief Executive of RBS Group's UK and European businesses in cards and consumer finance, primarily delivered through the direct delivery channels. In 1993, Chris became the National Sales Director for Lombard Business Finance, moving on to become Managing Director and later Chief Executive of Lombard Group.   The other members of RBS' Executive Committee not mentioned above are;

-   Stephen Hester - Chief Executive Officer, took up his post on 21st November 2008)

-   John Hourican - Head of Global Banking and Markets, took up his post on 1st November 2008

-   Ellen Alemany - Chairman (since March 2009) and CEO (since March 2008) of Citizens 
     Financial Group and Head of RBS Americas (since March 2007).

-   Ron Teerlink - Chief Administration Officer (since February 2009) having been CEO of
    Manufacturing Division (since April 2008) 

-   Guy Whittaker - Chief Financial Officer (departure announced on 5th May 2009)

For further information contact:

Andrew Wilson, Head of Group Corporate Affairs

[phone]

[phone]

Neil Moorhouse, Head of Group Media Centre

[phone]

[phone]

 

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