John Silvester Varley (born 1 April 1956) is an English banker who was the group chief executive of

Barclays Barclays PLC (, occasionally ) is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services ...

from 2004 to 2011.

Early life

John Silvester Varley was born in

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

. His father, Philip, was a solicitor in

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

. Varley was educated at the

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Downside School at Stratton-on-the-Fosse south of

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, becoming head librarian, then at

Oriel College, Oxford Oriel College () is Colleges of the University of Oxford, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title for ...

( MA History), 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 Corporate finance is an area of finance that deals with the sources of funding, and the capital structure of businesses, the actions that managers take to increase the Value investing, value of the firm to the shareholders, and the tools and analy ...

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 Asset management is a systematic approach to the governance and realization of all value for which a group or entity is responsible. It may apply both to tangible assets (physical objects such as complex process or manufacturing plants, infrastr ...

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 Matthew Barrett as group chief executive of Barclays. His annual salary from Barclays was £1,075,000. On 1 January 2011 he was succeeded as chief executive by Robert Diamond. As of 2013, Varley was a trustee of The Prince of Wales's Charitable Foundation. In June 2017, following a five-year investigation by the UK's Serious Fraud Office covering Barclays' activities during the

2008 financial crisis The 2008 financial crisis, also known as the global financial crisis (GFC), was a major worldwide financial crisis centered in the United States. The causes of the 2008 crisis included excessive speculation on housing values by both homeowners ...

, Varley and three former colleagues, Roger Jenkins, Thomas Kalaris and Richard Boath, were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and the provision of unlawful financial assistance. In June 2019, the SFO cleared Varley of fraud charges.

Personal life

In 1981 he married Carolyn Thorn Pease, daughter of Sir Richard Pease, 3rd Baronet, and in so doing married into the

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

Pease family, whose bank became part of Barclays in 1902. His sister-in-law is the hedge fund manager

Nichola Pease Nichola Pease (born 3 April 1961) is a British fund manager. According to The '' Sunday Times Rich List'' in 2019, Pease and her then husband Crispin Odey were worth £775 million. Early life Nichola Pease was born in April 1961. Her father, ...

, who was married to hedge fund billionaire

Crispin Odey Robin Crispin William Odey (born January 1959)O'Hannelly, Padraig"Investment Greats: Crispin Odey" Motley Fool, 2 October 2009. Retrieved 13 June 2012. is a British hedge fund manager and founder of Odey Asset Management. In June 2023, the '' ...

. They have two children. They live in Brook Green in Hammersmith, West London, and own a country house in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

References

External links

Barclays

News items

''Sunday Times'' article August 2006

''New Statesman'' interview January 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Varley, John Silvester 1956 births Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford Barclays people English bankers English chief executives English solicitors Living people Pease family People from Warwick People educated at Downside School