Sir António Mota de Sousa Horta-Osório (born 28 January 1964) is a Portuguese-British banker who has been a prominent figure in the financial services industry for over 30 years, with a successful international career in banking covering commercial and retail banking, asset management, and investment banking. In 2021, he was knighted by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

for his work in banking and voluntary services in the fields of mental health and culture.

Early life

Family

He is the son of António Lino de Sousa Horta Osório and Adélia Maria Mendonça Mota, maternal grandson of Carlos Cecílio Nunes Góis Mota, and paternal grandson of António Sarmento de Sousa Horta Osório. Married to Ana Cristina Costa Pinto Horta Osório.

Education

António Horta-Osório holds a degree in Business Management and Administration from the Portuguese Catholic University in Lisbon, an MBA from

INSEAD INSEAD ( ; French: ''Institut européen d'administration des affaires'') is a non-profit business school with locations in Europe (Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE) and North America (San Francisco, USA ...

, and an Advanced Management Program from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, the

University of Bath The University of Bath is a public research university in Bath, England. Bath received its royal charter in 1966 as Bath University of Technology, along with a number of other institutions following the Robbins Report. Like the University ...

, the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

, the

University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

, and the Portuguese Catholic University.

Career

Early career

In 1987 Horta-Osório joined

Citibank Citibank, N.A. ("N. A." stands for "National bank (United States), National Association"; stylized as citibank) is the primary U.S. banking subsidiary of Citigroup, a financial services multinational corporation, multinational corporation. Ci ...

in Portugal, where he became vice president and head of

Capital Markets A capital market is a financial market in which long-term debt (over a year) or equity-backed securities are bought and sold, in contrast to a money market where short-term debt is bought and sold. Capital markets channel the wealth of savers t ...

until 1990. During this period, he also taught at the Catholic University of Portugal, where he was an assistant professor, and a guest professor from 1992–1996. He was also a guest professor in the Superior Course of Banking Management at the Portuguese Bank Training Institute (IFB), from 1988 to 1994. In 1991 he joined

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

, working in their corporate finance division, in New York City and London, from 1991 to 1993. That year, he was invited by

Emilio Botín Emilio Botín-Sanz de Sautuola García de los Ríos, ''iure uxoris'' Marquess of O'Shea (1 October 1934 – 10 September 2014) was a Spanish banker.Ana Botín to join the

Santander Group Banco Santander S.A. trading as Santander Group ( , , ), is a Spanish multinational financial services company based in Santander, with operative offices in Madrid. Additionally, Santander maintains a presence in most global financial centres ...

and set up Banco Santander de Negócios in Portugal (BSNP), of which he became CEO. From 1995 to 2003, he was president of the Association of Alumni of INSEAD in Portugal. In 1998 he became a member of the INSEAD Portuguese Council, and from 2003 to 2007 he was the chairman. In 1997, Horta-Osório moved to Brazil, where he initiated Santander’s retail activities in the country, purchasing two retail banks and merging them into Banco Santander Brasil, of which he became CEO (1997–1999) and chairman (1997–2000). From December 1997, he also became the chairman of Banco Santander Portugal. With the 1999–2000 agreement between

António Champalimaud António de Sommer Champalimaud (19 March 1918 in Lapa (Lisbon), Lapa, Lisbon – 8 May 2004 in Lapa, Lisbon) was a Portuguese people, Portuguese banker and industrialist. He was the wealthiest man in Portugal, gaining his fortune through insuran ...

, the Santander Group and the

Caixa Geral de Depósitos Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) () is a Portugal, Portuguese state-owned banking corporation, and the largest bank in Portugal, established in Lisbon in 1876. CGD now has presence in 23 countries spanning four continents through branches, repres ...

, the Santander Group became the owner of Banco Totta & Açores and Crédito Predial Português, adding these to Banco Santander de Negócios and Banco Santander Portugal. Following this, the Group changed its name to Banco Santander Totta. In 2000, he became chief executive of Banco Santander Totta in Portugal. He also became executive vice president of Banco Santander in Spain and a member of its management committee. He joined

Abbey National The Abbey National Building Society was formed in 1944 by the merger of the Abbey Road and the National building societies. It was the first building society in the United Kingdom to Demutualisation, demutualise, doing so in July 1989. The ba ...

as a non-executive director in November 2004. In August 2006, he moved to the UK, and became CEO of Abbey and its successor

Santander UK Santander UK plc (, ) is a British bank, wholly owned by Banco Santander, a Spanish bank. Santander UK plc manages its affairs autonomously, with its own local management team, responsible solely for its performance. Santander UK is one of th ...

. In 2006, he became chairman of Santander Totta in Portugal. In 2008, he led the integration into the Santander Group of the British

building societies A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization, which offers banking institution, banking and related financial services, especially savings and mortgage loan, mortgage lending. They exist in the Unit ...

Bradford & Bingley Bradford & Bingley plc was a British bank with headquarters in the West Yorkshire town of Bingley. The bank was formed in December 2000 by demutualisation of the Bradford & Bingley Building Society following a vote of the building society's me ...

and

Alliance & Leicester Alliance & Leicester plc was a British bank and former building society, formed by the merger in 1985 of the Alliance Building Society and the Leicester Building Society. The business Demutualisation, demutualised in the middle of 1997, when ...

. Horta-Osório was appointed as a non-executive director to the Court of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

in June 2009, relinquishing this position in February 2011, as he became CEO of Lloyds Banking Group on 1 March 2011. Horta-Osorio is currently a non-executive director of EXOR N.V., Fundação Champalimaud and Sociedade Francisco Manuel dos Santos in Portugal, a member of the Board of Stichting INPAR. He also serves on the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) President’s Committee and is Chairman of the

Wallace Collection The Wallace Collection is a museum in London occupying Hertford House in Manchester Square, the former townhouse (Great Britain), townhouse of the Seymour family, Marquess of Hertford, Marquesses of Hertford. It is named after Sir Richard Wall ...

Lloyds Banking Group

In January 2011 he joined

Lloyds Banking Group Lloyds Banking Group plc is a British financial institution formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. It is one of the UK's largest financial services organisations, with 30 million customers and 65,000 employees. Lloyds B ...

as an executive director, becoming CEO on 1 March 2011. In November 2011, he went on temporary leave due to exhaustion, which the ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'' called the most high-profile

sick leave Sick leave (or paid sick days or sick pay) is paid time off from work that workers can use to stay home to address their health needs without losing pay. It differs from paid vacation time or time off work to deal with personal matters, because ...

in the City. The following month, he announced that he was ready to return to work. In January 2012, he cited the impact that his leave of absence had on the company as the reason that he did not wish to receive a bonus for 2011, and said "As chief executive, I believe my bonus entitlement should reflect the performance of the group". Under his leadership, the bank's financial performance was turned around. It returned to profitability, slimming down to focus on domestic lending and to meet tougher regulatory requirements on the amount of capital it holds. Lloyds started down the road to full private ownership, with the Government reducing its stake in September 2013 and March 2014 respectively. In 2014, Horta-Osório saw his pay increase more than 50 percent to £11.5m as Lloyds returned to profit. Lloyds completed its return to private ownership in May 2017 with ''c.''£900m above the original stake being repaid to the government. In the aftermath of the

Brexit Brexit (, a portmanteau of "Britain" and "Exit") was the Withdrawal from the European Union, withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU). Brexit officially took place at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February ...

referendum, Horta-Osório sought to allay fears the bank would shift operations abroad as other UK banks had announced. He said "We have no plans to move jobs to

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

, or anywhere else in Europe, as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

…But the nature of our business, and our UK focus, means the direct impact on our business is less compared to our peers". In 2017, Lloyds' statutory profit increased by 24% to £5.3bn in the year and it paid out the largest dividend in its history (£2.3bn) including a share buyback of £1bn. It also completed the acquisition of MBNA (1 June) and announced the acquisition of Zurich's UK workplace pensions and savings business (12 October). In July 2020 Horta-Osório announced that he would stand down as chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group by summer 2021. Charlie Nunn, formerly of HSBC, was named as his successor. Horta-Osório left at the end of April 2021.

Credit Suisse

In December 2020, Credit Suisse announced that, from April 2021, Horta-Osório would succeed Urs Rohner as its chairman. Rohner described himself as "extremely happy" with the appointment. Horta-Osório is the first non-Swiss chairman in the bank's history. It was reported that he would move to Switzerland to take up the role, which he began by purchasing Credit Suisse stock worth $1.2 million as a sign of confidence in the group. He resigned in January 2022 after an internal investigation into his breach of Covid rules in the UK and Switzerland, and was succeeded by Axel Lehmann.

BIAL and other positions

Currently, Horta-Osório is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the pharmaceutical company BIAL; Non-Executive Director of the Champalimaud Foundation, Stichting/Enable INPAR, José de Mello Capital, SA, and Teya Holding; and Senior Advisor to

Mediobanca Mediobanca S.p.A. is an Italian investment bank founded in 1946 at the initiative of Raffaele Mattioli (at that time CEO of Banca Commerciale Italiana) and Enrico Cuccia to facilitate the post-World War II reconstruction of Italian industry. Cu ...

Cerberus Capital Management Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is an American global alternative investment firm with assets across credit, private equity, and real estate strategies.Leaders Magazine"Providing Economic Opportunity: An Interview with The Honorable Dan Qua ...

, and Precision Capital.

Other activities

Institute of International Finance The Institute of International Finance (IIF) is the association or trade group for the global financial services industry. It was created by 38 banks of leading industrialized countries in 1983 in response to the international debt crisis of the ...

(IFF), Member of the Board

Honours and Awards

Portuguese Orders

POR Ordem do Merito Comercial Gra-Cruz BAR

Grand-Cross of the Commercial Class of Order of Entrepreneurial Merit (June 2014)

Foreign Orders

Commander of the Spanish Royal Order of Civil Merit (August 1998) * BRA - Order of the Southern Cross - Commander BAR

Commander of the Brazilian

Order of the Southern Cross The National Order of the Southern Cross () is a Brazilian Orders, decorations, and medals of Brazil, order of chivalry founded by List of monarchs of Brazil, Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, Pedro I on 1 December 1822. The order aimed to commemorate ...

(October 1998) * ESP Isabella Catholic Order COM NUM

Commander by Number of the Spanish Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic (June 2009) * SMOM-gc

Knight of Grace and Devotion of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta (2010) * Knight Bachelor for services to financial services and voluntary services to mental healthcare and culture (

2021 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours for 2021 are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded ...

) *

Freeman Freeman, free men, Freeman's or Freemans may refer to: Places United States * Freeman, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Freeman, Illinois, an unincorporated community * Freeman, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Freeman, South Dako ...

of the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

(2018)

Awards

Honorary Doctorates

Catholic University of Portugal The Catholic University of Portugal ( Portuguese: ''Universidade Católica Portuguesa'', pronounced nivɨɾsiˈðad(ɨ) kɐˈtɔlikɐ puɾtuˈɣezɐ, also referred to as Católica or UCP for short, is a concordat university (non-state-run unive ...

(February 2022) *

(June 2011) *

(July 2012) *

(2015) *

(2019)

Other awards

* Foreign Policy Association Medal (2019) * British American Business Corporate Citizenship Award (2019) * INSEAD Alumni Achievement Award (2019)

Personal life

Horta-Osório and his wife Ana have three children, and live in Chelsea, London. He is a keen scuba diver, and enjoys playing tennis and chess. Horta-Osório supported the UK remaining in the European Union.

Controversies

In August 2016, Horta-Osório issued an apology in an email sent to Lloyd Banking Group's 75,000 staff for reported transgressions in his personal life while travelling abroad. He clarified that there was no financial misdeed, as he paid all his expenses personally, and indicated that he did not intend to leave the group as a consequence. He wrote: "I deeply regret being the cause of so much adverse publicity and the damage that has been done to the group’s reputation." His actions were reported to have been in breach of a code of personal responsibility for Lloyds staff that he had introduced himself. In December 2021, a preliminary investigation by Credit Suisse had found that Mr Horta-Osorio had breached Covid-19 rules. He attended the Wimbledon tennis finals in July 2021 at a time when the UK's Covid-19 restrictions required him to be in quarantine. Mr Horta-Osorio also breached Swiss Covid restrictions when, according to Reuters, he flew into the country on 28 November but left on 1 December 2020. Swiss rules meant he should have quarantined for 10 days upon his arrival.

Mental-health philanthropy

Horta-Osório has been public in describing how restoring Lloyds Bank's fortunes "almost shattered" his mental health and he has become a prominent campaigner for employers to support their employees with mental-health challenges, and thus shrug off its stigma. At Lloyds he oversaw the training of thousands of mental-health first-aiders, while he and around 200 other senior executives underwent a 12-month “optimal leadership resilience programme”, devised with his psychiatrist, Dr Stephen Pereira. Since January 2017, Lloyds Banking Group’s partnership with Mental Health UK has raised £11m and enabled 14,000 volunteering hours and 40 support groups. The partnership also runs a Mental Health and Money Advice service. Horta-Osório was also involved, with

Prince William William, Prince of Wales (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982), is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales. William was born during the reign of his p ...

, in the launch of

Mind The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...

’s Mental Health at Work “gateway” in 2018; and in Lloyds’ membership of the City Mental Health Alliance. He has been widely praised for his campaign against the workplace taboo surrounding mental-health issues; Simon Blake OBE, chief executive of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) England, described his openness about his own problems as “inspiring”. In 2020, Lloyds Banking Group’s work to raise awareness of mental health earned it a Gold award in the Business Disability Forum’s Disability Standard.

Arts

In 2015 Horta-Osório was made chairman of the

. In 2019, during his tenure, the gallery eased its traditional policy of not loaning any items, and began both to make and receive temporary loans of selected works – for example, lending

Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...

’s " Perseus and Andromeda" for the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

’s 2020 exhibition, ''Titian: Love, Desire, Death''. The collection’s director, Xavier Bray, hailed the change as a "revolution" which was "like bringing fresh air to the collection and just making it live again". Horta-Osório’s chairmanship, a prime ministerial appointment, was renewed in 2019. Horta-Osório is also a significant collector of Portuguese art, particularly works of art made under Portuguese patronage in maritime Asia from the 16th to the 18th century. The collection includes objects created in China, Japan and India (especially

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

), often in rare materials such as

tortoiseshell Tortoiseshell or tortoise shell is a material produced from the shells of the larger species of tortoise and turtle, mainly the hawksbill sea turtle, which is a critically endangered species according to the IUCN Red List largely because of its ...

mother-of-pearl Nacre ( , ), also known as mother-of-pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer. It is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is ...

and

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and Tooth, teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mamm ...

and

rock crystal Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical fo ...

. It also features a number of early chess sets.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Horta-Osorio, Antonio 1964 births Living people Lloyds Banking Group people People from Lisbon Portuguese bankers Portuguese emigrants to the United Kingdom INSEAD alumni Portuguese chief executives Catholic University of Portugal alumni 20th-century Portuguese businesspeople 21st-century Portuguese businesspeople Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom Knights Bachelor British bankers Goldman Sachs people Businesspeople awarded knighthoods