Alex Thursby, head of ANZ’s international business, has left the Australian bank to become group chief executive of National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), the biggest bank in the United Arab Emirates.
He will take up the new job on July 1, replacing Michael Tomalin, who is retiring after 14 years with the bank. Tomalin will stay on as a non-executive director to support the transition.
“I am delighted we have attracted someone of Alex’s calibre and experience to lead the management team at NBAD,” said Nasser Alsowaidi, chairman of NBAD. “Alex’s depth of banking knowledge, his leadership and people capabilities, his experience and network in UAE, and across many markets in our existing and target footprint, particularly in Asia, will help enable effective execution of our growth plans.”
ANZ poached Thursby from Standard Chartered six years ago to lead its expansion into Asia, which gained significant momentum after the 2009 acquisition of Royal Bank of Scotland’s retail and commercial businesses in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan, and its institutional business in the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Thursby was tipped as a successor to Mike Smith, the former HSBC banker who runs ANZ, so his departure to a lower profile job in the Middle East came as a surprise to some. Even Smith admitted that the news was “a little bit unexpected”, according to Australian media reports.
Markets reflected a similar sentiment, with ANZ’s share price falling by almost 3% since the move was announced on Wednesday.
But not everyone was so surprised. One headhunter noted that ANZ’s cost-cutting last year might reflect a diminished appetite for the kind of big investments that it had made in the past.
The bank’s most recent results showed decent performance and, commenting at the time, Smith said Asia’s contribution to earnings was on the rise, with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan now the bank’s most profitable region after Australia and New Zealand — but he conceded that margins were under pressure from the growing competition.
Thursby is taking a big step down by moving to NBAD, which has total assets of about $80 billion, compared to ANZ’s $600 billion balance sheet — but it does offer an opportunity for growth. The bank already has operations in 15 countries on four continents and has plans to expand its network to 41 countries by 2021, with new branches this year slated for Brazil, Lebanon and South Sudan.
