LONDON – The Lloyds Banking Group, the bailed-out British bank, said on Monday that Norman Blackwell would become its chairman next year, succeeding Winfried Bischoff, who is scheduled to retire in April.
Mr. Blackwell, 61, has been a director of Lloyds since June 2012 and is a member of its audit and risk committees. He is chairman of Scottish Widows, Lloyds’ insurance business, and Interserve, a British construction and support services company.
“I am honored to have been asked to become chairman of Lloyds Banking Group,” Mr. Blackwell said. “I would like to thank Win for the outstanding job he has done in steering the bank through a tremendous turnaround. This is a great opportunity to be part of helping the bank go even further in serving customers and supporting the U.K. economic recovery as it returns to full private ownership.”
Mr. Bischoff, 72, has been Lloyds chairman since September 2009, and was previously chairman of Citigroup.
The British government pumped billions of pounds into Lloyds during the financial crisis and continues to own about 33 percent of the bank. The government sold a 6 percent stake in the bank this year for £3.2 billion pounds, or about $5.2 billion.
Mr. Blackwell spent 15 years as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, was group development director at the Royal Bank of Scotland unit NatWest and was a director of the Scottish life insurance and pension provider Standard Life until last year.
He headed the prime minister’s policy unit under John Major from 1995 to 1997, and was a member of the unit under Margaret Thatcher from 1986 to 1987.
“Our desire was to find someone with deep financial services experience who would also have credibility with our key stakeholders,” said Anthony Watson, a Lloyds director who headed the process to select a chairman. Mr. Blackwell was the board’s unanimous choice, he said.