CS Axa

LONDON—HSBC Holdings PLC on Wednesday said former Standard Life PLC Chief Executive David Nish will become a director in May, adding extra heft to the bank's board as it undergoes planned leadership changes.

Mr. Nish, 55, left Standard Life last summer after being CEO for six years. A chartered accountant, Mr. Nish worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for 16 years before serving as finance director at Scottish Power PLC and then at Standard Life. HSBC Chairman Douglas Flint said Mr. Nish would bring "considerable relevant experience" to the role, and that the reshaping of Standard Life under Mr. Nish has similarities to HSBC's own restructuring to improve returns.

HSBC is cutting costs and shedding units including its bank in Brazil to free up capital for further investment in mainland China and other parts of Asia, under a plan led by CEO Stuart Gulliver. Leadership changes are afoot at the bank, though, which could mean further changes to strategy in the years ahead. Mr. Nish is best known for having changed Standard Life from an insurance company into an asset manager.

Mr. Flint, HSBC's former finance director who became chairman at the end of 2010, is set to be replaced next year. In a letter to shareholders last week, Mr. Flint said the search for his successor is under way and that the next chairman will then start looking for a new CEO "in due course." Mr. Gulliver, an HSBC veteran with the bank since 1980, previously said he planned to stay in his role at least through the end of next year. He became CEO in January 2011 after a messy power struggle that elevated Mr. Flint to chairman. For decades, HSBC CEOs traditionally moved into the chairman role—even after U.K. corporate governance guidelines discouraged that path—but this time around the bank has said its next chairman will come from outside its executive ranks.

Meanwhile, several long-serving board directors have left or are leaving to make way for new blood. New directors include Henri de Castries, the outgoing CEO of AXA SA who joined HSBC's board on March 1 and is being tipped as a possible successor to Mr. Flint.

Write to Margot Patrick at margot.patrick@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 23, 2016 09:15 ET (13:15 GMT)

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