Last checked at 
By Gareth Gore
LONDON, April 21 (IFR) - Barclays has promoted Sam Dean andCrispin Osborne to be co-heads of banking for the Europe, MiddleEast and Africa region, filling a role that has been vacant fora year after its previous holder Richard Taylor took on globaloversight of the business, according to a memo seen by IFR.
The appointments are a major boost for the two. Dean onlyreturned to Barclays in January after taking a year-longsabbatical, rejoining the UK bank as chairman of global financeand risk solutions. Before his break, he was global head ofequity capital markets. He joined Barclays in 2009.
Osborne joined the firm in 2010 as head of banking for theCentral and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa region. In2012, he became head of banking for Continental Europe andAfrica.
Taylor was named as EMEA investment banking head back inNovember 2012, and last April was promoted to become co-head ofbanking globally alongside Joe McGrath. The two report toinvestment bank boss Tom King, who held the EMEA investmentbanking head role before Taylor.
Both Dean and Osborne will work closely with the otherregional banking heads - John Miller in the Americas, and ReidMarsh and Patrick Kwan in Asia-Pacific.
"We are highly focused on driving returns across our entireBanking franchise," the memo said. "We have made good progressin EMEA, but we need to take our business further forward.Deepening our client relationships in EMEA at the most seniorlevels, with additional intensity and focus, and ensuring ourcapital is fully aligned with our priority clients will be majorobjectives for the new leadership team."
Meanwhile, Makram Azar has been named chairman of bankingEMEA. He joined Barclays in 2010, and was most recently chairmanof all of the firm's businesses and activities in the MiddleEast and North Africa region. He will remain chairman ofBarclays MENA in addition to his new expanded responsibilities. (Reporting by Gareth Gore; Editing by Christopher Spink)
