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Corporate Governance
Corporate governance continued to be an
area of focus. Ensuring appropriate controls and processes are in place is an important
role of the Board. Equally important is the
role the Board plays in providing advice to management on achieving strategic goals. The agendas for the Board meetings are designed to enable it to fulfil both duties.
There were a number of Board changes during 2005. Dr Jürgen Zech retired as a non-executive Director at the Annual General Meeting in April and Roger Davis resigned as a Director in December. I paid tribute to Dr Zech in last year's Annual Review and I would like to take the opportunity to thank Roger for all his hard work as Head of our UK Banking business.
Four new Directors joined the Board during the year. Bob Diamond, President of Barclays and Chief Executive, Investment Banking and Investment Management, became an executive Director on 1st June in recognition of the increasing importance both of his own role and of the contribution made by the businesses he leads to the Group's overall profits and growth. John Sunderland, Chairman of Cadbury Schweppes PLC and President of the CBI, became a Director during the year. John's excellent track record and wealth of business experience will be invaluable to the Group. Robert Steel also joined the Board in June. He was previously Vice-Chairman of Goldman Sachs and brings extensive knowledge and experience of global financial services and US investment banking to the Board. Finally, Dr Danie Cronjé, Chairman of Absa Group Limited, became a non-executive Director in September following our successful acquisition of a majority stake in Absa. Fulvio Conti will be joining the Board with effect from 1st April 2006. Fulvio is Chief Executive Officer of Enel SpA, the Italian energy group. These appointments provide significant additional commercial and international experience to the Board. Sir David Arculus will be retiring from the Board at the Annual General Meeting, having served as a Director for just over nine years. His experience and wise counsel will be greatly missed. Finally, it is with great sadness that I report the death of Sir Nigel Mobbs during the year. Sir Nigel served with great distinction as a Director for 23 years until his retirement in 2004.
