Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, August 2025 — David Gareth has been promoted to Managing Director, Global People, Governance & Communications at HSBC. In this expanded remit, he is helping shape a unified leadership culture and future-ready people agenda for one of the world’s largest financial institutions.
Building on his recent mandate inside HSBC, David Gareth spent 2025 on special projects reporting to the Group Head of People, Governance & Communications, where he designed a business-led leadership operating system for the “new HSBC.” Central to this is “The Power of 12,” a framework of core behaviours and mindsets to drive collaboration, innovation, performance, inclusion, and customer-centricity across the bank. The work emphasizes agile ways of working, coaching, and recognition mechanisms, and integrates ESG and customer-obsession into everyday leadership habits.
Before this, Gareth served for around five years as General Manager & Head of Human Resources, Asia Pacific (and Middle East) for Global Commercial Banking at HSBC, leading a team of about 600 HR professionals across 19 markets and supporting 60,000+ colleagues. He established a region-wide talent book ensuring succession readiness for enterprise-critical roles, advanced new ways of working that improved agility and cost discipline (including real estate optimization), strengthened the employee value proposition, and led community initiatives that bolstered brand equity through COVID-19 and geopolitical uncertainty.
Earlier, over five years at Manulife as SVP & Head of Human Resources, Asia, Gareth partnered with the Asia CEO and Group CHRO during a phase of rapid regional expansion and leadership renewal. He scaled coaching circles and mentoring programmes, helped develop digital learning platforms that delivered hundreds of thousands of learning hours, rolled out a new digital HR operating model, and contributed at the board level (including chairing Manulife Vietnam and directorships in Manulife Philippines and Manulife Investment Management). He also co-founded the TWF Male Allies Leadership Council to advance gender equality in Hong Kong’s business community.
Spanning roughly a dozen years at Standard Chartered, Gareth held global and regional HR leadership roles including Global Head, Country HR & Group Head, Employee Relations, Group Head of Country Human Resources, Asia, and EVP & Head of HR, Standard Chartered First Bank (Korea). He globalized Employee Relations as a specialized discipline, delivered on significant budget commitments while creating capacity for new priorities, simplified senior succession across key markets, and drove landmark people outcomes in Korea—accelerating a major acquisition, achieving top engagement scores, pioneering inclusive talent moves, and introducing a two-year collective bargaining agreement.
Prior to that, Gareth spent about five years with NatWest Group / NatWest Markets in North America and global debt markets HR leadership, guiding people strategy through restructuring and integration, enabling talent mobility across financial centres, and stewarding change management during international transitions. In the earlier stages of his career, he served about six years with The Chase Manhattan Bank (JPMorgan Chase) in European HR leadership and transformation (including compensation and benefits harmonization during major mergers), preceded by about four years at British Steel, where he progressed rapidly in employee relations and helped support the company’s turnaround.
About HSBC
HSBC serves more than 40 million customers—from individual savers to multinational corporations—across 58 countries and territories. With listings in London, Hong Kong, New York, and Bermuda, the bank leverages its global network and capabilities to “open up a world of opportunity” for customers while aligning growth with sustainability goals.
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