Appoints new COO

2 Jun 2006 16:44

HSBC Holdings PLC02 June 2006 HSBC APPOINTS NEW CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER HSBC Holdings plc has appointed David Hodgkinson to the position of Group ChiefOperating Officer. David, 55, will take over from Alan Jebson who retired on 26 May 2006. Heassumes responsibility for ensuring the efficient and innovative evolution ofHSBC's processes and services around the world. This includes the highlysuccessful global resourcing initiative which has seen HSBC establish 11 Groupservice centres to handle selected processing and customer service work for anumber of HSBC Group companies around the world. Michael Geoghegan, HSBC Group Chief Executive, said: "David has precisely thekind of broad-based experience in banking that we require for this criticalrole. HSBC has led the industry in the development of global processingoperations and the challenge now is to take the exemplary foundations laid byAlan Jebson and build upon them to make HSBC the most efficient banking group inthe world. "I have no doubt that David, working closely with his colleagues around theworld, has the skills to realise our ambitious goals." Prior to this appointment, he was Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer ofHSBC Bank Middle East Limited, based in Dubai. He joined HSBC in 1969, and hassince held senior positions in numerous countries, including Hong Kong,Singapore, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia. David, already a Group Managing Director, will have a seat on the HSBC GroupManaging Board. He will, additionally, oversee several business units and functions includingthose with which he has been closely associated, notably HSBC's operations inthe Middle East. The responsibility for HSBC's information technology systems will continue toreside with Ken Harvey, Group Chief Information Officer, who reports to MichaelGeoghegan. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange