Autumn Dinner: 4 November 2008

Guest Speaker: Sir John Bond
Venue: Cavalry & Guards Club, 127 Piccadilly, London
Time: 7.30 pm for 8.00 pm (6.30 pm cash bar)

Members of the Society will be delighted to hear that Sir John Bond, Chairman of Vodafone, will be the guest speaker at the autumn dinner. There will be a cash bar from 6.30pm, and the event itself will begin with a reception at 7.30pm. The all-in cost of this event will be £65 per head. This include the Reception and a 3 course dinner with wine at your table. No tickets will be issued. Dress will be lounge suits.

About Sir John Bond Sir John Reginald Hartnell Bond retired as chairman of HSBC Holdings plc on 26 May 2006, after spending 45 years with the bank. He took up the position of Chairman of Vodafone in July 2006.He was appointed as a member of the Hong Kong Chief Executive’s Council of International Advisers in the years of 1998-2005.John Bond joined The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation as an International manager in 1961, at the age of 21, 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, Thailand and the Middle East, before returning to Hong Kong to manage the bank’s investment banking arm Wardley in the 1980s. From there, he was posted to Buffalo, New York, to head the bank’s United States operations (at that time called 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.On 28 November 2005, HSBC announced that Bond would step down as chairman from May 2006, to be succeeded by the bank’s CEO, Stephen Green. It was later announced that Bond would be taking over from Lord MacLaurin as chairman of the British telecommunications company Vodafone.During Bond’s tenure as chairman, HSBC extended its reach well beyond its major franchises in Hong Kong and Britain. From 1998 to 2005, HSBC spent $47bn on acquisitions, including those of Republic National Bank, Credit Commercial de France, Bital Bank, Bank of Bermuda, and Household International.Bond led HSBC to devoting considerable resources to corporate social responsibility, recognising the bank’s responsibilities to the environment and the communities in which it operates. He was also behind HSBC’s strong interest in the demographic changes being wrought by an aging world.His management style is modest, and in interviews Bond preferred to discuss HSBC rather than himself. He attributed his rise to the top of HSBC as a result of being in the right place at the right time. He was born in Oxford, and educated at Tonbridge School. Bond is married to Elizabeth, Lady Bond, with whom he has two daughters and a son. He was knighted in 1999 for his services to banking.In March 2007 at the European Business Awards he was given a lifetime achievement award.