António Simões

Fantastic!

📢 We've announced today my appointment as Group CEO of Legal & General from January 2024 and that Pedro Castro e Almeida will be the new Regional Head of Europe for Santander from 1st September.

It’s an honor 🙏🏻 to join Legal & General; one of those opportunities that you can’t refuse. But it is a very difficult decision to leave Santander ♨️. Being part of this FANTASTIC company, with a legacy going back to 1857, has been a real privilege (thank you Ana and Héctor 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼).

Our #OneEurope 🇪🇸🇵🇹🇬🇧🇵🇱 transformation started 3️⃣ years ago with an ambitious plan to build a better bank for our customers, our people, our shareholders and with a positive impact on society. I’m super proud of the FANTASTIC results that we’ve delivered since then:

🚀 Europe is now the growth engine for the Group (contributing the most to Group’s profits in Q1).
👫 Improving customer experience (#CustomerObsession!); adding 1million+ customers over the last year.
📈 Profit After Tax growing from €1.1b in 2020 to €3.8b in 2022. And Q1 2023 growing 19% YoY to €1.2bn.
🏦 Profitability increasing from 3% RoTE in 2020 to 13% in Q1 2023.

But what I am most proud of is our cultural transformation; having an aligned team who supports, challenges, and lifts up one another 🤲🏼. We’ve built a culture of openness, transparency and meritocracy.

Pedro has been part of that leadership team from day one. He has an impressive track record 💪🏻 of transformation in Portugal and contribution to #OneEurope 🙌🏼.

In our team, he is known for always saying ‘FANTASTIC!’ when I ask everyone ‘how are you feeling?’ during our team ‘check-ins’ 🤩. He brings that optimism coupled with healthy skepticism, courage to speak up and professionalism to every discussion.

So I am certain he is the best person to take #OneEurope to the next level. Also nice (fantastic 🤔) to be succeeded by a fellow Portuguese 🇵🇹😉. Maybe there is something in the water🚰? But if there is, clearly Pedro has drunk much more of it than me; he is 1,90m tall and I am barely over 1,70m (pictures don’t lie! 📸👇🏼).

Parabéns, Pedro o melhor ainda está para vir! For everyone else at Santander I’m still around until 1st September so no goodbyes yet 🥹. But I want to say a huge thank you 🙏🏼 to everyone for your dedication, hard work and support to me over these three amazing years 🫶🏼.

King and Country 👑🇬🇧

‘Be joyful, keep the faith and keep doing the little things. Little things that, compounded, can change the lives of millions’ so said His Majesty King Charles III at his Coronation 👑 last year.

On Monday, I attended the International Investment Summit, hosted by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chancellor Rt Hon Rachel Reeves, and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds MP. The PM was clear that to grow our economy (📸 Department for Business and Trade👇), we need more high quality, long-term investment and that this means making the UK the best place in the world to invest.

At Legal & General we’re ready to build on, and catalyse, the £32bn we’ve already invested in regional economies (📸👇 Sunderland City Hall, for example) around the UK 🇬🇧 to revive communities and deliver sustainable affordable housing, transport and digital infrastructure, and welcome that the PM and his team want to create a new partnership with the private sector to achieve the growth we need 💪📈.

The Summit finished in spectacular style with a performance by Sir Elton John (📸👇) at St Paul’s Cathedral (📸👇) with King Charles III 👑 in attendance.

The following day, almost 50 years since its conception, the Prince’s Trust became The King's Trust 🎉 with the same commitment to helping young people from disadvantaged communities in the UK and around the world. This was particularly special to me having been involved with the Trust for well over a decade and a Trustee of The King's Trust International since 2018 (📸👇 of a previous meeting with the King at a Prince’s Trust event).

From £7,600 of His Majesty’s navy severance used back in 1976 to fund 21 community initiatives around the country, the Trust has grown to support more than 1.3 million young people across the UK and 20+ countries around the world 🌍. One of those beneficiaries, James Sommerville (helped by the Trust in 1986), was the designer behind the new logo (📸👇).

That is just one of those ‘little things that, compounded, can change the lives of millions’, all from that single £7,600 investment 48 years ago. Now, let’s imagine everything we can do with the billions of investments destined to grow the UK economy 🇬🇧💪📈.

New beginnings 🇪🇸🇬🇧

Today was Father’s Day in the UK (Inês calls it ‘double P’ day 😍🌈). Inês and Nico had made some super cute cards 📸👇🏻 saying ‘Dear Pai and Papa, happy Father’s Day, thank you for taking care of us’, and Nico painted us as family 👨‍👨‍👧‍👦 and asked the teacher to write: ‘Pai (me) likes sushi 🍣’ and ‘Papa (Tomas) likes ice-cream 🍦’ 😂.

When I ask them about what is the most important thing in life they immediately reply ‘to be a good person’ 🦜. It feels a bit forced as I have repeated it so many times, but I was thinking how I learned that myself from my own dad and although Father’s Day was back in March in Portugal 🇵🇹 I called him earlier to wish him ‘feliz dia do pai’. Obrigado pai, por tudo 😍(photo 👇🏻 back in Tuscany last summer).

This was also a nostalgic weekend as it is one of the last ones we spend in London before moving the family to Madrid 🇪🇸 (I learned early on that parenthood is a kind of perpetual striving towards balance, and this move will definitely help with that!). We are super excited about it but also a bit sad to leave London; although I will be back every month for work and the kids will probably continue to think of themselves as more British than either Spanish or Portuguese 🤦🏻‍♂️.

As part of the ‘goodbye tour’ we went yesterday to the London Eye. We had an incredible time (of course it rained; it is London!) looking at everything from the Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (Inês spotted the statue of Boudica 🔎 having just learned about her at school), to the BT tower (can you see Santander UK??), St Paul’s Cathedral ⛪️, The Shard or the Tate Modern 🏭. They were handing out some #pridemonth stickers 👇🏻📸 which felt just right 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ and reminded me how far we have come since I first moved to London. Actually, the only other time I had been on the London Eye was right after it first opened, during my first summer (2000) living in London. So a nice way to close the circle 🎡 (pardon the pun!).

And what a ride it has been. London contains many of my “firsts”: coming out at work (as an associate at Goldman Sachs), meeting incredible friends, including the one (Juan Carlos Machuca 🙏🏻) who introduced me to Tomás (20 years ago this year!), becoming a partner at McKinsey & Company, joining HSBC and coming back to London after a two year stint HK to be their UK CEO. And of course deciding to join Banco Santander two years ago! But most importantly, London has been where Tomas and I created a life for ourselves, with all the ups and downs, the joys and the challenges. And the most important of those, being parents to Inés and Nico.

Happy Fathers’ Day! #pride2022 #pridemonth2022