What is Standard Chartered’s CEO Succession Plan?

Standard Chartered has announced its full-year and fourth-quarter results for 2025, with income up 8% and an underlying return on tangible equity of 14.7%. 

This follows a dip in shares after the departure of Diego Di Giorgi, former CFO of the bank. 

Diego was a favourite to replace current CEO Bill Winters, who has been under pressure to clarify Standard Chartered’s succession plan after his exit. 

Despite this, Bill suggested that he has no current plans to leave the bank when it shared the annual results, saying that he plans to deliver a strategy update in May 2026, “and I intend to see it through”. 

Diego Di Giorgi’s departure

Diego left Standard Chartered in early February 2026 for Apollo Global Management after more than two years with the bank. 

Standard Chartered shared in a statement that he chose to leave to “pursue other opportunities”, and announced Pete Burrill, formerly Deputy Chief Financial Officer, as his replacement on an interim basis. 

Discussing the company’s annual results, Bill said of Diego’s departure: “I don’t know why Diego left – I don’t know whether it was concerns about succession, concerns about whether he was going to be the chosen one, or money or something – but anyway, he’s gone, he made that decision and he was clear about that.

“I have no reason to think that anybody else is impatient about succession inside the bank or outside.”

Succession planning at Standard Chartered

Bill has held the CEO role at Standard Chartered since 2015, which makes him one of the longest serving chief executives at a British bank. 

Other potential successors have also left the company – such as Simon Cooper, who left in 2024 after Bill indicated he had no plans to leave Standard Chartered. 

Bill is not concerned, however, sharing that the bank has a “robust set of succession plans”, and a “wide and deep bench of internal candidates”. 

He says: “I’m not worried about succession at all, although clearly it’s important at this point that I see this part of our strategy through to allay any concerns in the market that there’s any disruption, of which there has been none so far.”

The bank under Bill Winters

Since taking the helm as CEO of Standard Chartered in 2015, Bill has led major transformations for the company, improving digital capabilities and restructuring the bank to focus on higher-growth areas. 

This includes the company’s “Fit for Growth” programme, which was designed to simplify the bank's structure, reducing costs by US$1.5bn. 

Under Bill’s tenure, the company has also launched Trust Bank in Singapore and Mox in Hong Kong – natively digital banks that have helped it reaffirm its presence in Asia. 

Discussing the company’s recent results on LinkedIn, Bill said: “While we’ve reached an important milestone, our work is far from done. 

“We must keep transforming to keep pace with our clients’ evolving expectations, especially in view of the powerful forces that will reshape global trade and capital flows in the years to come. 

“I’m confident that our shared ambition and discipline will very much define our next chapter, and I look forward to sharing more about our new medium-term financial framework at our investor event in May.”