Sir John prolongs his stay in the City with mining role
SIR John Bond, one-time chairman of HSBC and outgoing chairman of Vodafone, hopes to extend his stay in the FTSE 100 after agreeing to chair mining group Xstrata.
Sir John, aged 70, has wasted no time, joining Xstrata’s board as a consultant with immediate effect ahead of his departure from Vodafone in July.
Sir John will eventually replace Willy Strothotte, the Glencore chairman who retires from the Xstrata chair at an AGM on 4 May.
But even if Sir John’s tenure is cut short by a Glencore merger deal, he has plenty to share with the firm in the meantime.
Bond has a wealth of ties to China, one of Xstrata’s fastest-growing customers, thanks to more than 40 years at HSBC and involvement with the China Development Forum and the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management.
He began his career in a Hong Kong branch of HSBC at 21, becoming chief executive in 1993 and chairman in 1998. He joined Vodafone in 2006.