Joe Garner (businessman)

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Johnson Daniel Garner (Joe Garner)
Born (1969-06-23) 23 June 1969 (age 52)
Hertfordshire, England
NationalityBritish
EducationMaster of Arts (M.A.)
Alma materCambridge University[1]
OccupationFinancial services
Years active1991 – present
EmployerNationwide Building Society
Known forCEO of HSBC UK, Openreach and Nationwide Building Society
TitleGroup Chief Executive
Board member ofNationwide Building Society, Financial Services Practitioner Panel[2]
Children1

Johnson Daniel Garner (born 23 June 1969) is the Chief Executive of Nationwide Building Society, the UK's largest mutual financial organisation. He previously held senior roles at BT's infrastructure division Openreach, HSBC and Procter & Gamble.

Early life[]

Garner was born in Hertfordshire, having two older sisters. His father was an aeronautical engineer who had worked at de Havilland, and had married Alegra Mizrahi in 1959.

He went to school at King's College School,[4] an independent school in Wimbledon, leaving in 1987. He studied Geography at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Career[]

Early career[]

Garner was a graduate trainee at Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1991. He spent nine years at P&G including five years in Romania, then worked at their European headquarters in Brussels. He joined Dixons in 2001, initially as Marketing Director at mobile phone retailer The Link. In 2003 he played a key role in launching Immobilise www.immobilise.com which had the objective of reducing mobile phone theft by stopping the ability to re-programme stolen phones.[5]

HSBC[]

Following his stint at P&G and a short stay at Dixons, Garner joined HSBC in 2004. He was appointed Head of UK Retail Bank on 1 December 2010 as Group General Manager and deputy head of HSBC UK, replacing Paul Thurston. He is credited with putting in place the firms approach to Treating Customers Fairly.[6] He left at the end of October 2012.[7] Brian Robertson was Head of HSBC Group's (combined) UK operations at the time.

BT[]

Garner became chief executive of BT's infrastructure division Openreach in February 2014.[8] During his tenure superfast broadband coverage exceeded 90%.[9] He left the company in April 2016 to become chief executive of Nationwide Building Society.

Nationwide[]

His role at Nationwide started on 5 April 2016, with former CEO Graham Beale stepping down on 4 April 2016. In addition to his £885,000 salary, Garner also receives a £292,000 pension allowance, a £1 million bonus and £500 a day to cover the cost of travel, security and medical expenses.[10] In April 2020, Garner was one of the first CEOs in the financial services sector to take a salary reduction and forfeit his bonus in light of the coronavirus crisis.[11] In March 2021 Nationwide said that its 13,000 staff could work anywhere, with Garner describing the move as "putting employees in control of where they work from".[12] On 23 September 2021, Nationwide announced that Garner had asked the Board of the Society to start the process of finding his successor as part of an orderly transition. [13] At Nationwide’s half-year results in November 2021, the Society stated that its profits had more than doubled versus the same period last year to £853million.” [14]

Industry roles[]

Garner sits on the board of UK Finance,[15] the trade association for the finance industry, and sat on the Practitioner Panel of the Financial Services Authority having previously been its Chair from 2011 to 2013.[16] He was also a non-executive director of the Financial Ombudsman Service from 2008 to 2010.

Personal life[]

He is an keen triathlete, competing in his age group at the 2018 European Championships, coming 15th.[17] He was chair of the Triathlon Trust from 2012-2020 [18] and upon leaving became Patron of the British Triathlon Federation, only the second time this honour has been bestowed on an individual. [19]

See also[]

  • Chris Pilling, Chief Executive of the Yorkshire Building Society, who also studied Geography at Cambridge, then took a graduate role with P & G, then worked at HSBC

References[]

  1. ^ "BT Openreach boss Joe Garner switches to Nationwide". Financial Times.
  2. ^ "New appointments to Practitioner Panel".
  3. ^ "Joe Garner in 2015".
  4. ^ King's College Wimbledon page 34
  5. ^ Mathieson, SA (6 February 2003). "Nicked and useless". The Guardian.
  6. ^ The Lion Wakes, a modern history of HSBC; by David Kynaston and Richard Roberts; 2015
  7. ^ Banking in December 2010
  8. ^ Telegraph August 2014
  9. ^ "BT Openreach defends broadband rollout".
  10. ^ Senior City Correspondent, Ben Martin (18 June 2019). "Nationwide chief Joe Garner paid £500 a day in expenses". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  11. ^ Treanor, Jill (12 April 2020). "Coronavirus isn't a financial crisis, it's a human crisis, says Nationwide chief". The Times.
  12. ^ "Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere' BBC March 2021".
  13. ^ "Joe Garner, chief executive of Nationwide Building Society, is planning to leave his role after nearly six years at the helm".
  14. ^ "Nationwide defies pandemic to double its half-year profit - 21 November 2021".
  15. ^ "Our Board | UK Finance". www.ukfinance.org.uk. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  16. ^ "FSA appoints HSBC UK boss as practitioner panel chairman".
  17. ^ "Joe Garner".
  18. ^ "Triathlon-trust-seeks-new-chair".
  19. ^ "Leadership changes at the Triathlon Trust". www.britishtriathlon.org.

External links[]

Business positions
Preceded by Chief Executive of Nationwide Building Society
April 2016 - 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
Preceded by Chief Executive of Openreach
February 2014 - April 2016 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
 Head of UK Retail Bank of HSBC UK
December 2010 - October 2012 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from ""