Brussels, 21 May 2012 – Swift CEO Lázaro Campos has notified the Board of his intention to leave the company. After 25 years with the company, the last five of which were successful years as CEO, it is his intention to pursue opportunities outside Swift. Under his leadership, Swift embarked on an ambitious growth and transformational strategy (Swift2015), almost doubling volumes, maintaining excellent operational performance while successfully reducing costs by 30%, and prices by 50%.
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"Swift is an extraordinary company with great people and I have enjoyed my years here immensely. I am proud of what Swift means to the industry and what we have achieved during my tenure as CEO. But after 25 years with one organization, it is the right time for me to move on and make an impact elsewhere," says Campos, who is one year short of his 50th birthday.
Campos informed the board of his decision in March, allowing ample time for the Board to examine all options and conduct an orderly succession process. He will continue to lead the company until 30th June and the management team will continue to fulfil its current duties. The Board has nominated Gottfried Leibbrandt, currently Head of Marketing, to replace Campos as CEO effective July 1st. Prior to joining Swift Leibbrandt was a partner at McKinsey & Company. He holds a MBA from Stanford and a PhD from Maastricht.
“Swift has become a stronger, nimbler, and more customer centric company under Lázaro's leadership. The Board joins me in thanking Lázaro for his dedication and service and we wish him all the best in his future endeavours,” says Swift Chairman Yawar Shah. “Swift has an exceptionally strong management team, which has enabled the Board to appoint an internal candidate. Gottfried Leibbrandt has been part of the Swift executive team for five years and he is very well qualified to take over the baton. I am confident he will ensure Swift will continue to improve on its tradition of excellence and innovation in support of the global financial community.”
“I feel very proud to be nominated by the Board as Lázaro’s successor,” said Leibbrandt. “The company has never been in better shape and I feel very privileged to be able to lead Swift forward at a time of great opportunity.”
About Lázaro Campos
Lázaro Campos was appointed CEO of Swift on 23 April 2007. He joined Swift in 1987, with postings in Education and Standards. Lázaro served as Manager, FIN Products and Value Added Services from 1993 until 1995. From 1995 to 1998, he was Director of Market Infrastructure Services with responsibility for multiple domestic and international market infrastructure projects, including ECHO, CHAPS Euro, EBA Clearing and TARGET. Lázaro served as Director of Treasury Markets, where he managed the CLS project for Swift from 1998 to 2000. Lázaro was then appointed Head of Marketing where he led the Swift strategy initiative. In October 2003 he became Head of the Banking Industry Division until his CEO appointment. Lázaro has over twenty years’ international banking and telecommunications experience. Prior to joining Swift he served in the international division of Banc Agricol. He is Spanish.
About Gottfried Leibbrandt
Gottfried Leibbrandt is Head of Marketing at Swift. Gottfried joined Swift in 2005 to focus on the development of the Swift2010 strategy. Upon completion of the strategy, he was appointed Head of Standards and was promoted to his current role in 2007. Prior to joining Swift, Gottfried worked for McKinsey&Company for 18 years where he was a partner in the Amsterdam office and a co-leader of the European payments practice. He holds a Masters degree in Econometrics and Statistics from the Vrije Universteit Amsterdam and a MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Gottfried also holds a PhD in Economics from Maastricht University. His thesis was "Payment instruments and network effects: Adoption, harmonization and succession of network technologies across countries". Gottfried (51) is Dutch and married with three children.
About Yawar Shah
Yawar Shah is the Chief Operating Officer of Customer Intelligence reporting to Gene McQuade, CEO, Citibank, N.A. Yawar also serves as Chairman of the Board of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (Swift). Prior to his role as Chief Operating Officer, Yawar was the Global Head of Citi Shared Services, an umbrella unit that is responsible for the global delivery of corporate center services including finance, human resources and AML. Prior to working at Citi, Yawar spent 20 years as an executive at JP Morgan Chase in various senior business and operations/technology roles in Institutional, Consumer and Wealth Management. Yawar began his career at Booz Allen Hamilton New York in its Financial Services Strategy Practice. Yawar earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, Magna cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
About Swift
Swift is a member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect more than 10,000 financial institutions and corporations in 210 countries. Swift enables its users to exchange automated, standardised financial information securely and reliably, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational risk and eliminating operational inefficiencies. Swift also brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest.
For more information, please visit http://www.swift.com/ or contact:
Swift
JoAnn Healy
+ 1 212 455 1802
joann.healy@swift.com
Fishburn Hedges
Paul Farrow
+44 (0)20 7839 4321
swift@fishburn-hedges.co.uk
