Barclays, an international financial services provider engaged in personal, corporate and investment banking, credit cards and wealth management, has appointed James E. Staley as Group Chief Executive Officer, effective December 1, 2015.

Staley will also join the Boards of Barclays PLC and Barclays Bank PLC as a Director.

Staley said: “It is an honour to be chosen to lead Barclays, an institution with an extraordinary legacy of 325 years in existence. I look forward to building on this heritage and to working with the company’s dedicated and deeply talented employees to deliver the highest quality financial services to the bank’s customers and clients, with integrity and skill.”

Staley has nearly four decades of extensive experience in banking and financial services.

Staley joins Barclays from BlueMountain Capital, where he currently serves as Managing Partner.

Prior to joining BlueMountain in 2013, he worked for over 30 years at J.P. Morgan initially training as a commercial banker, and later advancing to the leadership of major businesses involving equities, private banking and asset management, and ultimately heading the company’s Global Investment Bank.

He serves on the Board of Directors of UBS AG, Renewable Energy Trust Capital, Inc, Alliance Partners, the Robin Hood Foundation, CODE Advisors, the Board of Trustees of Bowdoin College, the Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

John McFarlane, Barclays chairman, said: “Barclays is an incredibly important, broad and complex business. Appointing an individual with the business scope, seasoning and track record is a difficult challenge.”

“In Jes Staley we believe we have an executive with the appropriate leadership talent and wide-ranging experience to deliver shareholder value and to take the Group forward strategically. In particular, he understands corporate and investment banking well, the re-positioning of which is one of our major priorities,” he said.

Staley added said Barclays is a very valuable franchise: from its retail and commercial banking presence in the UK, its strength in cards and payments, its strong position in Africa, to its investment bank.

“Maximising the potential of this franchise means building on our competitive advantages and developing new ones in order to generate strong returns on capital. If we do this, increased value for our shareholders will follow at the same time as Barclays’ long history of leadership is continued and enhanced,” he said.

With 325 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs over 130,000 people.