Lloyds shakes up exec board
TRUETT Tate, the widely respected head of wholesale at Lloyds, will leave his job by the end of the month, the bank confirmed yesterday as part of a management overhaul.
The shake-up will see the number of executives who report to chief executive António Horta-Osório cut from 13 to five in an attempt to reduce his workload. The CEO had to take two months’ sick leave last year due to insomnia.
Julian Horn-Smith, a non-executive director, is also quitting the bank, and will be replaced by Sara Weller, former managing director of Argos.
Tate’s departure clears out all of the most senior executives in charge before Horta-Osório’s arrival at the bank.
One Lloyds insider expressed dismay at the move. “You hear António say we need to be the best bank for customers and yet here we’re losing the director in charge of customer relations. And you hear him say the bank needs to be a force for good and yet we’re losing the lead proponent for many of the social and cultural aspects for the bank.”
Tate has forged strong links between the bank and micro-finance charity Opportunity International.
However, a spokesman for Lloyds strongly refuted the claim that his leaving would affect either area, pointing out that both customer relations and corporate social responsibility have formal chiefs in charge.
Tate is also well-known in banking circles outside Lloyds and is a board member of AFME (Association for Financial Markets in Europe). AFME chief executive Simon Lewis called Tate “a positive and supportive member of the board”.