John Silvester Varley

John Silvester Varley
Born April 1, 1956 (1956-04-01) (age 55)
Warwick
Nationality British
Alma mater Oriel College, Oxford
Employer Barclays
Salary £1,075,000[1]
Spouse Carolyn Thorn Pease

John Silvester Varley (born 1 April 1956, Warwick) is an English banker, and former Group Chief Executive of Barclays Bank.

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Early life

His father, Philip, was a solicitor in Coventry. Varley was educated at the Catholic Downside School[2] at Stratton-on-the-Fosse south of Bath, becoming head librarian, then at Oriel College, Oxford (MA History),[2] and London's College of Law.

Career

He became a solicitor with Frere Cholmeley (which became Frere Cholmeley Bischoff and was then bought by Eversheds in 1998) in 1979.

Varley joined Barclays in 1982, as part of the Corporate Finance Department of the then Barclays Merchant Bank. Senior appointments with the successor bank, BZW (now Barclays Capital), included Deputy Chief Executive of BZW's Equity Division and head of BZW's offices in South East Asia. In 1995 he became Chairman of the Asset Management Division and from April 1998 to October 2000 was Chief Executive, Retail Financial Services. He joined the main Barclays board on 5 June 1998 and was Group Finance Director from 2000 until the end of 2003.

On 1 January 2004, Varley became Group Deputy Chief Executive, and on 1 September 2004 he succeeded Matt Barrett as Group Chief Executive of Barclays. His annual salary from Barclays is £1,075,000.[1]. On January 1, 2011 he was succeeded as Chief Executive by Robert Diamond.

Personal life

In 1981 he married Carolyn Thorn Pease, daughter of Sir Richard Thorn Pease, and in so doing married into the Quaker Pease family, whose bank became part of Barclays in 1902. They have a daughter (born May 1989) and son (born December 1994). He lives in Hammersmith with a country house in Hampshire.

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