Senior sources at the bank have indicated that Lord O’Donnell – who has also been tipped to become the next Governor of the Bank of England – is the preferred choice among board directors to succeed Marcus Agius reports The Telegraph.
Bill Winters, the former co-chief executive of JP Morgan’s investment banking division, is thought to be the favoured option to replace Bob Diamond as the bank’s chief executive. Barclays needs a new chairman and chief executive after Mr Agius and Mr Diamond resigned over the Libor-rigging scandal at the bank.
The process remains at an early stage and neither man is thought to have been offered a role at Barclays. It is also unclear whether they would be interested.
The news came as Sir Michael Rake, Barclays deputy chairman, confirmed that he did not want to become chairman.
His decision was revealed by low-cost airline easyJet, for which Sir Michael is chairman. This provoked an extraordinary response from Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, easyJet’s founder and largest shareholder who has an ongoing dispute with easyJet’s board. “It is now clear that even the City club of regulators and fund managers have given him the thumbs down,” Sir Stelios said. “If he’s not good enough for Barclays then he’s certainly not good enough for easyJet.”
