Economics

HSBC’s New Boss Is an Endurance Athlete Who Steers Clear of Twitter

  • Bank pairs 28-year insider with outsider Tucker as chairman
  • Flint takes charge as period of restructuring draws to an end

John Flint

Photographer: James MacDonald/Bloomberg
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Earlier this year, HSBC Holdings Plc broke with more than a century of tradition and tapped an outsider, Mark Tucker, as chairman. When it came to selecting a new chief executive officer, Europe’s biggest bank went with the ultimate insider.

On Thursday, the lender selected John Flint, the head of retail banking and wealth management, to succeed Stuart Gulliver as CEO on Feb. 21. In an era when global banks are increasingly turning to new faces to manage their fortunes in an unforgiving marketplace, Flint represents something rare -- a banker who’s spent his entire 28-year career in the same institution, rising from a management trainee to the top job.