Legal & General Group Plc announced that António Simões is to be appointed to the role of Group Chief Executive Officer of Legal & General, subject to regulatory approval. António will join from Banco Santander where he has been Regional Head of Europe since September 2020. In this role, he leads Santander's businesses in the UK, Spain, Portugal and Poland, working across retail and commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, wealth management and insurance.

Prior to joining Santander, António spent 13 years at HSBC, including as CEO of UK and Europe, and latterly CEO of Global Private Banking, based in London and Hong Kong. He is a former McKinsey & Company partner. António's appointment follows a rigorous, global, selection process managed by Sir John Kingman, Group Chair.

He will succeed Sir Nigel Wilson as Group CEO. António joined Banco Santander in September 2020 as Regional Head of Europe, responsible for 66,000 employees, 46 million customers and €3.8bn profit after tax*, across the UK, Spain, Portugal and Poland. He is currently a member of the Group management committee and Santander Spain, Santander UK and PagoNxt boards.

From April 2021 to January 2023, he was also CEO of Santander Spain. He has managerial responsibility and oversight of the retail and commercial banking businesses in Europe, and is jointly responsible for Corporate & Investment Banking and Wealth Management & Insurance in partnership with the global business heads. Before joining Santander, António spent 13 years at HSBC where he led a number of businesses in London and Hong Kong.

He was CEO for Global Private Banking and previously CEO for the UK and continental Europe. Before joining HSBC, he was a partner at McKinsey & Company in their London office and also worked at Goldman Sachs serving financial institutions in Investment Banking. António studied in the Nova School of Business and Economics (Lisbon), Bocconi University (Milan) and has a MBA from Columbia University (New York).

He has completed a World Economic Forum leadership programme at Harvard (Cambridge) and is a trustee of The Prince's Trust International.