Noel Quinn

Career Overview

Sir Noel Paul Quinn (born 13 January 1962) is a British banker who was group chief executive of HSBC from March 2020 to September 2024, having first been appointed interim chief executive in August 2019. Quinn studied at Birmingham Polytechnic and trained as a chartered accountant with Grant Thornton. Over his 37-year career at HSBC, he oversaw a successful transformation of the bank, delivering record profits and the strongest returns in over a decade.

As Group CEO, Quinn pursued an aggressive restructuring strategy that included a plan to reduce about 35,000 roles and to withdraw from mass-market U.S. retail banking. He oversaw a raft of asset sales, guided the lender to record profit and lifted its share price, including the sale of HSBC's French retail banking business completed on January 1, 2024; the disposal of its Argentina operations to Grupo Financiero Galicia for $550 million in April 2024; and the wind-down of U.S. mass-market retail banking activities.

Quinn's strategies drove substantial improvements, with HSBC achieving record pre-tax profits of $30.3 billion in 2023—the highest in its history—and delivering the strongest returns in over a decade. His tenure emphasized sustainability, with commitments to net-zero operations by 2030 and $750 billion in sustainable financing by 2025. Quinn was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2025 New Year Honours for his contributions to finance and net zero.

Career History

• CEO, Global Commercial Banking (2015–2019)
• Regional Head of Commercial Banking for Asia-Pacific (2011–2015), based in Hong Kong
• Group General Manager and Head of Commercial Banking UK (2008–2011), managing the business through the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis
• Early career: Various roles within HSBC's Commercial Banking division starting in 1987 with Forward Trust Group, the leasing subsidiary of Midland Bank (now HSBC UK)
• Chartered Accountant, Grant Thornton (1983–1986)

What Quinn could bring to Julius Baer: Quinn was proposed as the new chair for Julius Baer Group in February 2025, bringing deep expertise in global wealth management, transformational cost discipline, and sustainability leadership developed across four decades in institutional banking. His experience navigating geopolitical tensions, regulatory oversight, and capital redeployment in complex global institutions positions him to guide the Swiss private bank through strategic governance and long-term value creation while advancing ESG priorities increasingly central to private banking clients.