Peter Sands: Standard Chartered CEO

Peter Alexander Sands was born in the United Kingdom on January 8, 1962.  The life of Peter and his parents have been strongly influenced by what was once the British Empire. His parents, although British nationals, were both born in Asia; Peter’s father was born in Malaysia which was a British colony until 1957 and his mother was born in India which was also a former British colony.

While still a baby Peter was taken to Malaysia and spent the majority of his life away from the United Kingdom, mostly in Malaysia and Singapore. In 1984 he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brasenose College at Oxford. Peter’s career began in the public sector as a trainee at Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. He left to further his studies taking a Harkness Fellowship at Harvard University to earn a master’s degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government.

Peter then joined management consulting firm McKinsey in its London Office in 1988. He rose through the ranks and became a partner in 1996 and became a director in 2000.  Standard Chartered, a client of McKinsey, hired Peter as Group Finance Director in 2002. He was appointed four year later in 2006 as Group Chief Executive Officer.

Standard Chartered experienced strong growth partly under Peter’s leadership. The bank highlights the fact that more than 90 percent of its income and profit come from Asia, Africa and the Middle East. This structure enabled it to perform much better than other banks during the economic downturn including having record profits in 2009. It is reported that Peter devised the British bank rescue plan which was copied around the world.  

Peter is a member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of International Finance, the global association of financial institutions, and chairman of their Special Committee on Effective Regulation. In 2009 he was appointed by the British government to the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance.

Standard Chartered is one of the world’s most international banks with more than 1,600 branches, offices and outlets in 70 countries.