Barclays keeps apologizing for saving the bank
Strong leaders must choose the right path
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| "It took Barclays 300 years to get to 30 million customers. We’ll be at 60 million within four years" Frits Seegers, Barclays |
Between Bob Diamond driving the build-up of Barclays Capital on the one side and Frits Seegers driving the build-up of global retail and commercial banking on the other, John Varley must occupy one of the most interesting seats in global banking, if not always the most comfortable one.Entering his 14th year at the bank, Diamond is the long-serving head of a new entity, very much his own creation and that of a few trusted colleagues. Meanwhile if Seegers is heir to Barclays’ 300-year tradition as a retail and business bank, he shows no great respect for history but rather plenty of Diamond’s drive and ambition, if a little less of his easy bonhomie.
Seegers is Dutch and an engineer by training. He ran the Asian banking operations of Citi before taking the new position of head of global retail and commercial banking at Barclays in 2006.
