António Simões

António was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer on 1 January 2024.

Skills and experience

Prior to joining Legal & General, António was the CEO of Banco Santander Spain and Regional Head of Europe since September 2020. Before joining Santander, António spent 13 years at HSBC in a series of executive positions in London and Hong Kong; starting with strategy and M&A and then moving to leading different businesses as UK/European CEO and finally, global CEO of private banking. Prior to that, he was a partner at McKinsey & Company working in financial services across several geographies.

António studied in Lisbon (Nova School of Business and Economics), Milan (Bocconi) and the United States (MBA from Columbia University). In 2009, he was appointed a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and a few years later completed a WEF leadership programme at Harvard Kennedy School.

António was previously a member of the Practitioner Panel of the Financial Conduct Authority from July 2013 and was chair of the panel from August 2015 to August 2017. He was also a member of the Practitioner Panel of the Prudential Regulation Authority.

He is a vocal campaigner on youth unemployment issues and has been involved with the Prince’s Trust since 2012. He became a Trustee of Prince’s Trust International in 2018.