| “It’s easy for people who sit in an investment bank, as I used to, to think of Basle II simply in terms of capital. When you sit at a bank like Barclays, you realize that Basle II is going to have a much broader impact on how we run our business.” Chris Grigg, Barclays |
Chris Grigg was already a well-known character in the European financial institutions world before he took on the new role of Barclays group treasurer. He “retired” from Goldman Sachs as a partner at the end of 2004 following 20 years at the US firm, much of which was spent working with financial institutions on strategic financings. This included running debt capital markets five years ago when the firm was at the top of the bank capital league tables riding the European financial institutions M&A wave. No former Goldman partner with this much experience has a strong financial need to work. But at 45, Grigg is relatively young, and Barclays’ finance director, Naguib Kheraj, managed to tempt him with the offer of a new challenge.
“I joined Barclays in October 2005 so I’ve been here two and a half months and it’s been a very busy period,” Grigg says.