SWIFT’s chairman says that CEO Lázaro Campos is driving the change at the top.
SWIFT CEO Lázaro Campos is driving the change at the top of the financial messaging and services cooperative, says SWIFT’s board chairman Yawar Shah. Campos will be stepping down by the end of next month and will be replaced by Gottfried Leibbrandt, who is SWIFT’s Head of Marketing and a key architect for the SWIFT2015 initiatives for growth.
“The change at the top is driven by the CEO’s choice,” Shah says. Campos told the board this past March that he wanted to step down, which triggered a process of interviews of “less than six” internal candidates, Shah says. Campos, who has served as CEO for five years, will be pursuing opportunities beyond the cooperative.
“After 25 years with one organization, it is the right time for me to move on and make an impact elsewhere,” according to an official statement from Campos, who is 49. Neither Campos nor Leibbrandt was available for comment.
SWIFT officials say that Campos’ accomplishments include the SWIFT2015 strategy, nearly doubling volumes, a record of “excellent operational performance,” a 30% reduction in costs and a 50% drop in pricing for the cooperative’s offerings.
The replacement process “was pretty straightforward,” Shah says. “At the board level, we have an HR committee. We presented to the full board in March our approach, which was to look internally only because SWIFT has a very strong bench.”
Five years ago, SWIFT conducted a nine-month external search to replace then-CEO Leonard H. Schrank, who served for 15 years. In April 2007, Campos, then Head of the Banking Industry Division for SWIFT, was elevated to CEO. Prior to joining SWIFT in 1987, Campos worked in the international division of Banc Agricol.
During his tenure, Campos has built a strong management team, Shah says.
“Because the momentum was so strong, the board basically said we don’t really need to look outside, we know the candidates inside, let’s have an orderly transition,” says the board chairman. “We then interviewed the key candidates and went back to the full board with a recommendation that was Gottfried and that was unanimously accepted.”
The key job requirements for the CEO of SWIFT include a global strategic vision, serving financial communities, driving the cooperative with structure, governance, management and IT discipline and working well with financial institutions, countries and regulators, Shah says. Before SWIFT, Leibbrandt was a partner at management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
Campos and Leibbrandt, who becomes CEO on July 1, will be working closely during the transition, Shah says. The SWIFT2015 set of initiatives will “continue with strong momentum,” he adds.
“Gottfried has to step back and look at how he wants to run the company and reflect on that. That is his choice as CEO,” Shah says. “He obviously has to figure out how he’s going to replace himself as head of strategy and marketing.”
In addition to being board chairman for SWIFT, Shah is the Chief Operating Officer, Customer Intelligence for Citi.
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