Mike Geoghegan gave his life to HSBC. But the bank did not give him the chairman’s role many wrongly thought he craved. In his final interview as chief executive of one of the banks that performed best through the financial crisis, Geoghegan explains the circumstances of his departure, highlights the challenges facing both HSBC and the global banking industry at large, and reflects on a career that mirrored the globalization of financial services. Lucy McNulty reports.
Sitting in the Hong Kong office he entered with such fanfare a mere nine months previously, Geoghegan has a story to tell. But this isn’t the story you might be expecting – the widely reported, but fiercely denied, tale of a bitter, unpopular chief executive forced into early retirement after his efforts to secure HSBC’s chairmanship backfired. In his final interview at HSBC, Geoghegan makes clear his disappointment at the messy way in which his tenure came to an end. |
