Standard Chartered announces Board changes
Standard Chartered PLC (LON:STAN) today announced the appointments of Shirish Moreshwar Apte and Robin Ann Lawther as independent non-executive directors to its Board of Directors with effect from 4 May and 1 July 2022 respectively. Both directors will be put forward for election by shareholders at the 2022 Annual General Meeting.
On appointment, Shirish Apte will join the Audit and Board Risk Committees and Robin Lawther will join the Company’s Remuneration and Board Risk Committees. Subject to regulatory approval, both will also become independent non-executive directors of Standard Chartered Bank.
Shirish Apte is a former banker with a deep understanding and significant experience of financial services, most notably across the Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa and Central and Eastern European regions, having spent over 30 years in senior executive positions with Citibank, where he focused on corporate and investment banking, and risk management, and managed commercial and retail banking businesses at country and regional level.
Shirish Apte also brings considerable global non-executive experience across the financial services sector. He is currently the Chairman of Fullerton India Credit Company Ltd, an independent non-executive director and member of the Risk & Compliance and Audit Committees at Commonwealth Bank of Australia, an independent non-executive director at Singapore Life Pte Ltd and an independent non-executive director of Keppel Corporation Limited, where he is a member of its Audit and Board Risk Committees. Shirish also sits on the board of Pierfront Capital Mezzanine Fund.
Previously, he was Vice-Chairman at Fortis Healthcare Limited and an independent non-executive director at IHH Healthcare Berhad and Bank Handlowy w Warszawie SA. Shirish qualified as a Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants, England and Wales.
Robin Lawther also brings significant experience of the financial services industry with a broad background across investment banking and commercial banking, having spent over 25 years at JP Morgan Chase in a number of senior executive positions.
Ms Apte has valuable executive and non-executive experience across global markets and has considerable understanding of regulatory and governance issues. Since 2014, she has been an independent non-executive director of Nordea Bank Abp, the largest Nordic Bank, and is currently a member of its Remuneration & People Committee.
She is also an independent board member of Ashurst LLP, a non-executive board member of UK Government Investments and a member of the advisory board at Aon. Previously, Robin served as a non-executive director on the board of M&G plc from 2019 to 2021.
The Company also announces that Naguib Kheraj, Deputy Chairman and Chair of the Board Risk Committee, who has been on the Board for over eight years, will retire from the Board on 30 April 2022. Naguib Kheraj will be succeeded as Chair of the Board Risk Committee by Maria Ramos, subject to regulatory approval.
She was appointed to the Company’s Board, Audit Committee and Board Risk Committee, and the Court of Standard Chartered Bank, on 1 January 2021. She was appointed to the Remuneration Committee on 5 July 2021. Maria Ramos will also join the Governance and Nomination Committee on her appointment as Chair of the Board Risk Committee.
In addition, Christine Hodgson, Senior Independent Director and Chair of the Remuneration Committee, will stand for re-election at the 2022 AGM with the intention that she steps down from the Board at the end of her nine-year tenure in September 2022. The Company will provide an update on the effective date of Christine Hodgson’s retirement from the Board once it has been finalised.