Sir John Bond announces his retirement

28 November 2005

Sir John Bond, 64, Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings plc since 1998, will retire at the Annual General Meeting on 26 May 2006, after 45 years service.

Sir John will be succeeded as Group Chairman by Stephen Green, 57, who joined HSBC in 1982, and is currently Group Chief Executive.

Stephen Green will be succeeded as Group Chief Executive by Michael Geoghegan, 52, who joined HSBC in 1973 and is currently Chief Executive of HSBC Bank plc, the Group’s principal subsidiary in the UK.

These appointments have the unanimous support of the Directors and have been made after consultation with representatives of major institutional investors and explanation of the succession planning and independent external search process.

Michael Geoghegan will be succeeded as Chief Executive of HSBC Bank plc, subject to necessary approvals, by Dyfrig John, 55, who joined HSBC in 1971 and is currently the bank’s Deputy Chief Executive.

There are no matters that need to be brought to the attention of shareholders.

Biographies

Sir John Bond
Group Chairman
HSBC Holdings plc

Sir John Bond is Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings plc. He is also a member of the board of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited.

He became a non-executive director of Ford Motor Company in July 2000 and of Vodafone Group Plc on 1 January 2005. He was Chairman of the Institute of International Finance, Washington DC from 1998 to 2003, and was on the Court of the Bank of England from 2001 to 2004. He was elected President of the International Monetary Conference (IMC) in June 2002.

Sir John joined The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited in 1961 and worked in Asia for 25 years and the USA for four years, before coming to London in 1993.

He became an Executive Director of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1988. In 1990, he moved to Hong Kong and assumed responsibility for the whole Group’s commercial banking operations. He returned to the USA in 1991 as President and Chief Executive Officer of HSBC USA Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of HSBC Holdings.

He became Group Chief Executive of HSBC Holdings on 1 January 1993 and became Group Chairman on 29 May 1998.

Sir John was born in July 1941. Following his education in the UK, he held an English-Speaking Union scholarship in the USA from 1959 to 1960; from November 1997 to December 2003 he was a Governor of the English-Speaking Union. He was elected a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in 1983.

A knighthood was conferred upon him for his services to banking in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 1999.

Married with two daughters and a son, his interests include skiing and golf.

Stephen K Green
Group Chief Executive
HSBC Holdings plc

Stephen Green is Group Chief Executive of HSBC Holdings plc.

He was born in England on 7 November 1948. He was educated at Oxford University and received a master’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mr Green began his career with the British Government’s Ministry of Overseas Development. In 1977 he joined McKinsey & Co Inc, management consultants, with whom he undertook assignments in Europe, North America and the Middle East.

He joined The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited in 1982 with responsibility for corporate planning activities, and, in 1985, was put in charge of the development of the bank’s global treasury operations. In 1992 he became Group Treasurer of HSBC Holdings plc, with responsibility for the HSBC Group’s treasury and capital markets businesses globally. In January 2005 Stephen Green became Chairman of HSBC Bank plc.

Some of his other directorships include Bank of Bermuda, HSBC México, S.A. and HSBC North America Holdings Inc. He is also Chairman of HSBC Private Banking Holdings (Suisse) SA and HSBC Bank Middle East, a member of the Supervisory Board of HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt KGaA and is a board member of CCF SA.

In March 1998 Stephen Green was appointed to the Board of HSBC Holdings plc as Executive Director, Investment Banking and Markets responsible for the investment banking, private banking and asset management activities of the Group. He assumed additional responsibility for the Group’s corporate banking business in May 2002. His appointment as Group Chief Executive took effect on 1 June 2003.

Stephen Green is married with two daughters.

Michael Geoghegan CBE
Director and Chief Executive
HSBC Bank plc

Michael Geoghegan was appointed a Director and became Chief Executive of HSBC Bank plc on 1 January 2004. He was appointed a Director of HSBC Holdings plc with effect from 1 March 2004.  He is also a Director of CCF SA and Global Head of Personal Financial Services for HSBC’s businesses worldwide.

Mr Geoghegan was previously President of HSBC Bank Brasil S.A. – Banco Múltiplo, and of HSBC Investment Bank Brasil S.A. and HSBC Seguros S.A.

He joined the HSBC Group in 1973 and, since then, has spent 12 years in North and South America, eight years in Asia, seven years in the Middle East and three years in Europe.

Mr Geoghegan arrived in Brazil in March 1997 to establish the Group’s operations in the country following the creation of Banco HSBC Bamerindus S.A. He was appointed a Group General Manager of HSBC Holdings plc in the same year.

In January 2000 he became responsible for all of HSBC’s business throughout South America and chaired the Group’s Regional Executive Committee.

In October 2000 he became President of HSBC Investment Bank Brasil which resulted from the Group’s acquisition of CCF and the incorporation of certain activities of HSBC Brasil.

Mr Geoghegan was born on 4 October 1953 in Windsor, UK, and was educated in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In June 2003 he was honoured with a CBE (Commander Of The British Empire) by Her Majesty the Queen in recognition of his contribution to British business interests in Brazil.

Mr Geoghegan is Chairman of Young Enterprise UK which seeks to give students business experience while still in full-time education. HSBC has supported Young Enterprise for over 20 years as part of its commitment to financial education, and has 1,500 employees who volunteer their time for the organisation in schools across the UK.

Mr Geoghegan is married with two sons.

Dyfrig John
Deputy Chief Executive
HSBC Bank plc

Dyfrig John was appointed Deputy Chief Executive of HSBC Bank plc in May 2005. He was previously an executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the bank (from January 2003). He remains an executive Director of the bank.

Dyfrig was born on 14 May 1950 in West Wales, UK, and was educated in Pembrokeshire and Cardiff. He is married with two sons.

He joined Midland Bank (now HSBC Bank plc) in 1971 as a graduate management trainee, before joining the bank’s Corporate Finance arm in London in 1978. A year on the Sloan Fellowship Programme at the London Business School followed in 1982.

Dyfrig was then appointed to the bank’s Business Development Division, to work on major projects re-shaping the UK branch network, and the creation of the bank’s first centralised mortgage processing operation. As Projects Director from 1987, Dyfrig headed a multi-discipline team to develop and implement a customer information system and front office support for the bank’s branch network.

Following several senior management appointments at the bank’s London head office, Dyfrig became Retail Banking Director for Wales and South West England. In January 1993, he was appointed General Manager for Wales. He also held appointments on the Board of Authority at S4C, a Welsh television company, and the Development Board for rural Wales.

Dyfrig left the UK in May 1997 to become Chief Executive Officer of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in India, where he was also a member of the Standing Committee on Money Markets at the Reserve Bank of India. He also held the posts of Chairman of the Boards of HSBC Capital Markets India Private Limited, and HSBC Securities India Holdings Limited, the Group’s two investment banking operations in India.

In November 1999, he moved to Malaysia as Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Bank Malaysia Berhad. He was a Council Member of the Association of Banks in Malaysia, and of the Malaysian International Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MICCI), and is Chairman of the Inward Investors Standing Committee at MICCI.

Dyfrig became an HSBC Group General Manager in August 2000.