Company Name: Barclays

Founders:

• John Freame
• Thomas Gould

Industry: Banking

History:
Headquartered in the eastern end of London, the Barclays Group operates as an international British financial services firm. Apart from Europe, the Barclays Group also maintains operations in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Latin America, as well as in North America.

This holding company is currently one of the FTSE 100 Index’s constituents. The Barclays Group appears on the lists of the New York and London stock exchanges and was formerly included on the Tokyo Stock Exchange list.

With revenues reaching up to $32.5 billion, the Barclays PLC is hailed by the Tier 1 capital as the world’s largest financial services provider. Apart from this, the holdings company was also ranked as the world’s 25th largest company by Forbes’ Global 2000 in 2008.

The Datamonitor named the Barclays Group as the largest international financial services provider with its $3.7 trillion worth of assets. In terms of asset size, the Barclays Group ranks as UK’s second largest bank.

The Barclays Bank PLC, which was founded in 1960, also owns Barclays Capital. In fact, Barclays Capital serves as one of the firm’s strong investment arms. Through Barclays Capital, the firm was able to build a successful investment funds business that handles big sums of money for iShares. After some time, the executives of the company, including its president Bob Diamond, agreed to sell the iShares business in order to boost their capital. The business is preliminary priced at £3billion. However, the firm’s executive team is willing to sell it at a higher price once a bidder starts to show interest before the selling deadline is reached.

The firm’s board of directors is headed by chief executive officer John Varley. Under the Group CEO are several of the firm’s central corporate functions including the Human Resource Office, the Corporate Affairs Office, the General Counsel Office, as well as the Internal Audit and the Group Chief of Staff.

Leadership:

• Marcus Agius – Chairman
• John Varley – Group Chief Executive, Executive Director
• Robert Diamond – President