Barclays Adds Board Members From Soros Fund, Pimco Veteran

(Bloomberg) -- Barclays Plc appointed two high-profile finance veterans to its board, months after an activist investor attempted to gain a board seat of his own.

The British lender said Dawn Fitzpatrick joined the board on Wednesday, while Mohamed El-Erian will come aboard from Jan. 1. Fitzpatrick is currently chief investment officer at Soros Fund Management LLC and spent more than two decades at UBS Group AG. El-Erian led Allianz SE’s bond unit, Pimco, before becoming the firm’s chief economic adviser. He is also a columnist for Bloomberg.

Fitzpatrick is “an important hire in the context of activist interest in the name,” Goodbody analysts including John Cronin said in a note. “These are two excellent hires for Barclays.”

The appointments come after Dambisa Moyo, Reuben Jeffery and Mike Turner stepped down from the board earlier this year and Gerry Grimstone, one of the firm’s most senior bankers, also left. The bank said in March it that it would review the size of the board following the arrival of new Chairman Nigel Higgins in May.

Barclays also said it’s disbanding its reputation committee, placing those responsibilities with the main board.

The moves follow pressure from Edward Bramson, whose Sherborne Investors vehicle holds 5.5% of Barclays through shares and derivatives. He tried to win a board seat in order to advocate strategy changes, chiefly at the firm’s investment bank, but investors voted down his request in May.

“These appointments reflect Barclays’s commitment to the strengthening of its board through the addition of further high quality and highly respected individuals possessing a wide and deep knowledge of the group’s markets and businesses,” the bank said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stefania Spezzati in London at sspezzati@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ambereen Choudhury at achoudhury@bloomberg.net, Keith Campbell, Marion Dakers

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.