Unknown whether Sir Jonathan will introduce himself to clients as “Evans, Sir Jonathan Evans”.
Sir Jonathan Evans has been appointed a Director of HSBC Holdings. He will be an independent non-executive Director and a member of the Financial System Vulnerabilities Committee.
Sir Jonathan’s career in the Security Service, known as MI5, spanned 33 years, the last six of which as Director General. During his career Sir Jonathan’s experience included counter-espionage, protection of classified information and the security of critical national infrastructure. His main focus was, however, counter-terrorism, both international and domestic including, increasingly, initiatives against cyber threats. As Director General he was a senior advisor to the UK government on national security policy and attended the National Security Council.
He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2013 New Year’s Honours List and retired from the Service in April 2013.
Commenting on the appointment, HSBC Group Chairman Douglas Flint said that the bank was “delighted to welcome Jonathan as a non-executive Director and a member of the Financial System Vulnerabilities Committee. His experience and expertise gained from a career at the highest level of public service combatting threats to data security, critical infrastructure and from international terrorism and organised crime will be of considerable value to the Board as it addresses its governance of systemic threats.”
Sir Jonathan’s appointment will be for an initial three-year term which, subject to re-election by shareholders, will expire at the conclusion of the 2017 Annual General Meeting. The Directors have determined that Sir Jonathan is independent. In making that determination the Directors concluded that there are no relationships or circumstances which are likely to affect Sir Jonathan’s judgement and any relationships or circumstances which could appear to do so were not considered to be material.