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John McFarlane (Chairman 2015-2019)

John McFarlane (b. 14 June 1947) was appointed to the Board as a non-executive Director in January 2015 and succeeded Sir David Walker as Chairman in April of that year. Following the departure of Chief Executive Antony Jenkins, McFarlane served as Executive Chairman from July 2015, until James 'Jes' Staley was appointed Chief Executive with effect from 1 December 2015. 

Under McFarlane's Chairmanship, Barclays repositioned itself as a transatlantic bank - expanding its business in the USA while reducing its holdings elsewhere.  In 2018, he oversaw the successful completion of the operation to ring-fence the UK retail bank which resulted in the organisation of the Group into four companies: Barclays PLC (the holding company), Barclays Bank UK PLC (the UK retail bank, local business and Barclaycard UK), Barclays Bank PLC (corporate and investment banking and international services), and Barclays Services Ltd (support functions).  McFarlane resigned as Chairman at the Barclays AGM on 1 May 2019.

Before joining Barclays, he served as the Chairman of Aviva plc, having joined the Aviva Board in September 2011, and becoming Chairman in July 2012. He also acted as Chairman of FirstGroup PLC and as a non-executive director of Westfield Group Holdings Ltd and Old Oak Holdings Ltd. Prior to this, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) from 1997 to 2007, and as group Executive Director at Standard Chartered. He has also held senior positions at Citicorp (including as Managing Director of Citicorp Investment Bank and head of Citicorp and Citibank in the UK and Ireland). His past non-executive directorships include Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Capital Radio.