BANKING LEGEND SIR JOHN TO SPEAK AT KHAZANAH GLOBAL LECTURES

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 (Bernama) -- Banking legend, Sir John Bond, is the next
speaker at the Khazanah Global Lectures (KGL).

He will speak on the subject of "Development in a Changing World" at the
dinner lecture on Oct 21.

Bond, currently chairman of Vodafone, is best known as the former chairman
of the HSBC Group, having spent 45 years with it, Khazanah (investment holding
arm of the Government of Malaysia) said in a statement Friday.

His belief that a successful company must be seen as a force for good became
HSBC's overarching theme of "The World's Local Bank" branding.It anchored
the expansion era of the banking group under his chairmanship and was rated
among the top 50 most valuable global brands.

According to Khazanah Nasional Berhad's executive director of research and
investment strategy, Dr. Nungsari Ahmad Radhi, Bond's rich corporate experience
in a rapidly changing global environment would be invaluable for Malaysia as
local companies too are looking at new growth models.

Bond, 68, whom many have described as a modest man and a great humanist, had
an interesting and adventurous life.

Never having attended university, he had short stints as a deckhand (from
which he sailed to Hong Kong on a cargo ship), a disc jockey and a bartender
before beginning his career in banking in 1961.

Following assignments in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and the
United States, Bond was appointed chief executive officer (CEO) in 1993, the
year HSBC moved its headquarters to London following its purchase of the
troubled Midland Bank.

In 1998, he became executive chairman, serving for eight years up to his
retirement in 2006 and was appointed Vodafone chairman the same year.

Meanwhile, the KGL, inaugurated in 2007 had seen influential speakers such
as former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, founder of Grameen Bank,
Professor Muhammad Yunus, former chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph E.
Stiglitz, former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the
president and CEO of Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. and Renault SA, Carlos Ghosn.

The last KGL lecture was by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the former President of
India, the statement added.
-- BERNAMA