Joe Garner (businessman)

Johnson Daniel Garner (born 23 June 1969) was the chief executive of Nationwide Building Society, the UK's largest mutual financial organisation, from May 2016 to June 2022. He previously held senior roles at BT's infrastructure division Openreach, HSBC and Procter & Gamble.

Joe Garner
Born
Johnson Daniel Garner

(1969-06-23) 23 June 1969
Hertfordshire, England
Alma materCambridge University[1]
OccupationFinancial services
Years active1991 – present
Known forFormer CEO of HSBC UK, Openreach and Nationwide Building Society
Board member ofNationwide Building Society, Financial Services Practitioner Panel[2]
Children1

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,[3] 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.[4]

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.[5] He left at the end of October 2012.[6] 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.[7] During his tenure superfast broadband coverage exceeded 90%.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10] 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".[11] 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.[12] 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.” [13]

In May 2022 the Society announced its best ever financial results since it was founded in 1884 when it recorded a profit of £1.6bn for its financial year 2021/2022. In attributing the financial performance of the Society Garner said, “We have stuck to our knitting and have focused on doing it well. The key point is that all of our profit is retained and gives my successor options”. Garner was succeeded on 2 June as CEO by Debbie Crosbie, formerly CEO of TSB.[14]

Industry roles

Garner sat 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.

On 10 July 2023 in his Mansion House speech, Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that Joe Garner would Chair an independent review on the Future of Payments with the objective of considering how payments are likely to be made in the future and to make recommendations on the steps needed to successfully deliver world leading retail payments. [17] [18]

Personal life

He is an keen triathlete, competing in his age group at the 2018 European Championships, coming 15th.[19] He was chair of the Triathlon Trust from 2012-2020 [20] and upon leaving became Patron of the British Triathlon Federation, only the second time this honour has been bestowed on an individual.[21]

See also

References
  1. "BT Openreach boss Joe Garner switches to Nationwide". Financial Times. 16 November 2015.
  2. "New appointments to Practitioner Panel". 29 March 2015.
  3. "King's College Wimbledon page 34" (PDF).
  4. Mathieson, SA (6 February 2003). "Nicked and useless". The Guardian.
  5. The Lion Wakes, a modern history of HSBC; by David Kynaston and Richard Roberts; 2015
  6. "HSBC announces new UK management team". BBC News. 26 November 2010.
  7. "The man trying to speed up Britain's broadband". www.telegraph.co.uk.
  8. "Openreach defends broadband rollout". BBC News.
  9. 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.
  10. Treanor, Jill (12 April 2020). "Coronavirus isn't a financial crisis, it's a human crisis, says Nationwide chief". The Times.
  11. "Nationwide tells 13,000 staff to 'work anywhere'". BBC News. 25 March 2021.
  12. "Nationwide CEO Joe Garner plans exit". Mortgage Solutions. 23 September 2021.
  13. Editor, Katherine Griffiths, Banking. "Nationwide defies pandemic to double its half-year profit". {{cite news}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. "Nationwide profits rocket as it tells struggling members "talk to us"". 20 May 2022.
  15. "Our Board | UK Finance". www.ukfinance.org.uk. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  16. "FSA appoints HSBC UK boss as practitioner panel chairman".
  17. "Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's Mansion House speech – full transcript". 10 July 2023.
  18. "Terms of Reference – Future of Payments Review". 11 July 2023.
  19. Triathlon, World. "Joe Garner (GBR)". World Triathlon.
  20. "Leadership changes at the Triathlon Trust". TRI247. 22 December 2020.
  21. "Leadership changes at the Triathlon Trust". www.britishtriathlon.org.
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