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LONDON, April 14 (Reuters) - HSBC has appointedheadhunters to find new non-executive directors in an effort tofreshen up its board, a person familiar with the matter said onTuesday.
Europe's biggest bank has previously said its next chairmanwill be an external candidate, and Sky News said one of the newnon-executives was likely to be a replacement for ChairmanDouglas Flint.
Shareholders and industry sources have previously said theyexpected Flint to step down in the next 12-24 months.
The bank has appointed headhunters MWM Consulting to searchfor new non-executive directors, the source said.
Sky, which first reported the appointment of MWM, said oneof the new non-executives would be earmarked to succeed Flint,and it said he would step down no later than HSBC's shareholdermeeting in 2017.
HSBC has been shaken by a scandal over failings at its Swissprivate bank after allegations it helped clients dodge taxes.
Flint, 59, has been chairman since 2010, and before that hadbeen finance director since 1995. He is respected for hisregulatory expertise and he also chairs industry lobby group theInstitute of International Finance.
Several investors said the time was right for HSBC to planfor a change.
"Douglas Flint has been a good company man, but due to (thelength of) his tenure, a lot of things have gone wrong while hehas been there," one of the bank's 20 largest shareholders said.
Flint was appointed chairman and Stuart Gulliver was namedchief executive after a boardroom battle in 2010, which marked adeparture from HSBC's track record of orderly successions.
After that, the bank said it had told shareholders the boardwould ensure it had non-executives eligible to move up to be thenext chairman and one of them probably would.
HSBC's longest serving non-executives who could be replacedinclude Rona Fairhead and Simon Robertson, who have been on theboard for 11 years and nine years respectively. Sam Laidlaw,Rachel Lomax and Safra Catz, also non-executives, have been onthe board since 2008. (Reporting by Steve Slater and Sinead Cruise. Editing by AlexSmith and Jane Merriman)
