Santander's latest big London hire is a "lovely guy" who's been around

It's not unusual for people in banking to complain of ageism, a phenomenon that allegedly begins in your 40s.  However, once in a while there's a cheering story of someone who's spent 25 years at managing director level and who's achieved a new and big job.

Get Morning Coffee ☕ in your inbox. Sign up here.

Ken McGrath is of indeterminate age, but he's been a fixture of London banking for a long time. McGrath was a managing director (MD) in Citi's technology, media and telecoms group at the time of the dotcom boom in 2000, when today's analysts weren't even born. He ran Citi's financial sponsors group from 2010. He ran Barclays' EMEA financial sponsors group from 2014 to 2022. And now he's head of private equity for Europe at Santander.

McGrath is back in a managerial role at Santander, despite spending the last few years in an entirely-client facing position as chairman of financial sponsors EMEA at Barclays. Santander juniors may be lucky to have him. Sources say McGrath is a "lovely guy." At Barclays, he championed junior banker empowerment and helped pioneer a scheme where juniors got to tell MDs what they could do better. 

As we noted yesterday, Santander has been hiring a lot of managing directors. In the US, it has also allegedly being paying them big guarantees. It's not clear whether McGrath - who left Barclays before bonuses are paid - got the same treatment. 

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available.

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libellous (in which case it won’t.)