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LONDON, Nov 13 (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings announceda boardroom shake-up on Friday, with the departure of threedirectors who had sat on the board for a combined 30 years andthe arrival of two big names from European business.
Europe's biggest bank has been under pressure from someshareholders to make changes after several years of trying toturn around the business and a weak share price, prompting it toappoint headhunters in April to find new non-executivedirectors.
HSBC said that Simon Robertson, deputy chairman, will retireafter the bank's next annual shareholder meeting, normally inApril, and Safra Catz will leave at the end of this year. RonaFairhead will also leave after the AGM, as previously announced.
Paul Walsh, the chief executive of British drinks companyDiageo from 2000 to 2013, will join the HSBC board inJanuary. Henri de Castries, chairman and CEO of French insurerAXA since 2010 and its management board chairman since2000, will join in March.
HSBC has said that that its next chairman will be anexternal candidate, so any new director could be a replacementfor Douglas Flint, who industry sources expect to step down inthe next 18 months.
Fairhead and Robertson are HSBC's longest-servingnon-executive directors, having sat on the board for 12 and 10years respectively. Catz has been on the board for nearly eightyears.
Fairhead will hand her responsibilities as chair of HSBCNorth America Holdings to Heidi Miller at the end of 2015.
After the changes HSBC will have 14 independentnon-executive directors alongside three executive directors andthe full-time chairman. (Reporting by Emiliano Mellino and Steve Slater; Editing byDavid Goodman)