Marcus Agius was last night confirmed as the new chairman of Barclays after Irish-Canadian Matt Barrett confirmed he would retire from the United Kingdom's third largest bank at the end of the year.
Mr Agius (60), one of London's best known investment bankers, is currently UK head of Lazard and former chairman of BAA, the airports group.
He will relinquish all responsibilities at Lazard at the end of this year.
He joins at a time when Barclays is undergoing a transformation under John Varley, chief executive, as it aggressively expands overseas and into investment banking with Barclays Capital.
Mr Varley wants to graft the competitive global ethos and performance measures of Barclays Capital to the more sluggish parts of the business, such as the retail bank.
He has also hired a number of executives from US banks to senior positions within the organisation to step up the pace of change.
Barclays' board instigated a search for a replacement to Matt Barrett this year when he indicated he wanted to retire two years after he stepped up from chief executive to the position of chairman.
