Guy Whittaker will step down as finance chief of the part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland later this year. The bank expects a successor to be appointed by October. Stephen Hester, who joined the bank as chief executive in November 2008 following the resignation of Sir Fred Goodwin, said Whittaker had held “one of the most demanding roles at RBS,” which today announced a £44m pre-tax loss for the quarter.
Meanwhile, the CFO of German bank IKB has also announced his resignation. Reinhard Grzesikwill will leave “for personal reasons” at the end of June, with his responsibilities for finance, taxes, real estate and IT being passed to fellow director Dieter Glüder. Grzesikwill joined IKB in October 2007, shortly after the bank was bailed out by other lenders as one of the early casualties of the sub-prime crisis.
Barratt Developments, a UK house builder, has named David Thomas its new finance director. Thomas, who is currently finance director and deputy chief executive of video games retailer GAME Group, will take over the post from Mark Pain in August.
Christopher Lawrie, formerly CFO at Portuguese telecoms company Sonaecom, has been appointed the CEO of parent group Sonae’s new retail real estate business.
At Bilfinger Berger, a German construction company, Jürgen Schneider has retired as CFO, to be replaced by Joachim Müller. Schneider had been a Bilfinger Berger board member for 19 years.