John Bond

Sir John Reginald Hartnell Bond (born 24 July 1941) is the chairman of Swiss mining company Xstrata. He previously served as chairman of HSBC Holdings plc, spending a total of 45 years with the bank. He was appointed as a member of the Hong Kong Chief Executive's Council of International Advisers in the years of 1998–2005. Career John Bond joined The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation as an international manager in 1961, at the age of 19, his original application having been turned down before the intervention of the father of an old school friend whose father was a broker for the bank. He spent his early career in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, before returning to Hong Kong to manage the bank's investment banking arm Wardley in the 1980s. From there, he was posted to New York City, to head the bank's United States operations (which included Marine Midland Bank), before being appointed HSBC Group CEO in 1993. Bond took over as Group Chairman in 1998 with the retirement of Sir William Purves.