Barclays Wealth, Investment Management Chief Executive Tom Kalaris Leaves

Natasha Taghavi

19 April 2013

The wealth and investment management division of UK-listed Barclays said its chief executive, Tom Kalaris, will retire from the bank, effective June 30.

In addition to his role as CEO WIM at Barclays, Kalaris is also an executive chairman of Barclays in the Americas and will step down from this position at the end of June. He will step down from the Barclays executive committee at the end of this month.

Kalaris joined Barclays in 1996, and joined the Barclays executive committee in 2009. Before that, during an 18-year career at JP Morgan, Kalaris held a number of senior roles, including head of fixed income sales, trading and research, and was also responsible for investors in the US.

He has served on the US Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee and is a former chair of the US Bond Market Association, a predecessor organization to the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Kalaris, along with Rich Ricci, currently the chief executive of the corporate and investment banking arm, were two of the remaining management team members who had worked with former group CEO Bob Diamond, who resigned from the bank last year in the wake of the LIBOR-rigging scandal that involved the bank, as well as a number of other institutions.

Ricci has decided to retire on June 30, by which time he will have helped to support the establishment of the new leadership team. He will step down from the bank’s executive committee on April 30, Barclays said.

Transition

Kalaris will work with Peter Horrell, head of Barclays’ intermediaries, international and direct businesses, to implement the transition of responsibilities, as Horrell is named interim CEO of wealth and investment management, with effect from May 1, 2013. Horrell will report to group CEO Anthony Jenkins.

Meanwhile, Skip McGee has been hired as CEO Barclays Americas, with effect from May 1. He will be the senior executive in the Americas, with geographic responsibility for all of Barclays’ businesses in the region. McGee will also join the Barclays executive committee and report to Jenkins.

McGee joined Barclays in 2008 as head of global IBD. He was appointed chief executive, CIB Americas in 2012, and became chairman of global IBD last month. Prior to Barclays, McGee was head of global IBD at Lehman Brothers.

In addition, Eric Bommensath and Tom King have been appointed co-CEOs of corporate and investment banking, effective from May 1. Bommensath and King take on these roles in addition to maintaining their current responsibilities as head of markets and head of the investment banking division, respectively.

Bommensath joined Barclays in 1997 as head of derivatives, Europe. Before that, he spent eight years at Bankers Trust in London, Tokyo and Paris, where he was appointed managing director in 1995.

King joined Barclays in 2009 as head of the investment banking division, EMEA, and co-head of global corporate finance. He was appointed deputy head of the investment banking division in 2012. Before that, King held a number of senior positions at Salomon Brothers and Citi.

Bommensath and King will join the Barclays executive committee, and both men will report to Jenkins.

In other recent developments, in February Barclays' Wealth and Investment Management division logged an adjusted pre-tax profit of £115 million ($180 million) in the fourth quarter of 2012, almost double the level in the same three months of 2011, at £60 million.