Former McKinsey boss sounded out over HSBC chair - report

(Sharecast News) - The former head of McKinsey & Company has been sounded out about becoming the new chair of HSBC Holdings, it was reported on Friday.

According to Sky News, Kevin Sneader is one of a number of people being considered to replace current incumbent Mark Tucker.

Sneader was voted out as global managing partner of the consulting giant in 2021, after spending three years in the role in Hong Kong. Up until then he had spent his entire career at the firm, starting as a business analysts in the London office in 1989.

The US firm was hit by a number of crisis during his tenure, including having to pay out $600m to 49 US states for its role in advising opioid manufacturers.

Sneader is now at partner at Goldman Sachs and the bank's president of Asia Pacific, excluding Japan.

HSBC's long-serving chair announced last month he was retiring from the board after nearly eight years.

His departure comes as the blue chip looks to radically overhaul its global offering under recently installed chief executive Georges Elhedery, who took over from Noel Quinn last September.

As well as cutting $1.5bn rom the annual cost base by the end of next year, Elhedery wants London-listed HSBC to refocus on Asia, its most important market. As part of that, the lender is cutting its investment banking and equity capital markets offerings in the west.

HSBC said on Friday that Tucker would leave in September, when it will return to AIA - the Hong Kong insurer he used to run - as non-executive chair.

Tucker was the first outsider to become HSBC chair in the bank's 152-year history, Sky noted.

Brendan Nelson, head of the audit committee, will become interim chair while senior independent director Ann Godbehere continues to led the search for a permanent replacement.

Neither HSBC nor Sneader have commented on the Sky report.