HSBC stepped up its efforts to find a successor after Tucker surprised fellow board members with an announcement that he would leave the bank in September to take on a non-executive chairman role at AIA Group, Bloomberg previously reported.
A spokesperson for the bank said in an emailed statement that the process to appoint a new chairman is underway and that Brendan Nelson, the head of HSBC’s audit committee, will be interim chairman from Oct. 1.
The bank has struggled to develop a shortlist of successors after considering more than 100 people for the role, the FT reported, citing unidentified sources. HSBC has mulled tapping executives such as Zurich Insurance Group AG CEO Mario Greco, Goldman Sachs Group Inc executives Kevin Sneader and Richard Gnodde, as well as Bruce Carnegie-Brown, former chair of the Lloyd’s of London insurance market, the newspaper reported. Some of the potential candidates were unavailable while others had declined when approached, according to the FT.
A spokesperson for Zurich told the FT that Greco was approached by a headhunter and had declined because he was committed to Zurich.
