Rothschild sage Nigel Higgins to take Barclays chair in 2019
Higgins has been described as cerebral, extremely bright and conservative, with blue-chip clients that have included BT and Rolls-Royce
London — Barclays CEO Jes Staley may find a supporter in the veteran Rothschild rainmaker Nigel Higgins, who will become the lender’s chair in May 2019. A senior British banker who works with Higgins describes the Rothschild lifer as cerebral, extremely bright and conservative, with a Rolodex of blue-chip clients that have included BT, Rolls-Royce and 3i Group. He was the first outsider to run the storied 200-year-old Rothschild dynasty’s family firm, a testament to his diplomatic skill. His style contrasts with Staley, an American who has pushed hard to grow trading and investment-banking businesses in the face of scepticism from an activist. An old-school Wall Street banker, Staley shuns jargon and is intent on proving that a European firm can go mano-a-mano with US giants such as Goldman Sachs and his old firm, JPMorgan. The new chair is “tactful and unassuming, yet convincing and authoritative”, said John Kerr, a former deputy chair of Royal Dutch Shell, whom Higgins advised whe...
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