Exit prompts shake-up at Swire
A SHAKE-UP within Swire's top echelons in Hong Kong is in store for next week.
In her new capacity as executive director of John Swire & Sons in London, Lady Dunn will remain on the boards of John Swire & Sons (Hong Kong), Swire Pacific and Cathay Pacific Airways and she promises to visit the territory regularly for board meetings.
But she will relinquish her day-to-day responsibilities as an executive with John Swire & Sons (HK) at the end of this year.
There, she has been chiefly responsible for masterminding the expansion of Swire Pacific's trading division. Twenty years ago, the trading operations were small. Today, the division is one of the group's fastest growing sections.
Lady Dunn is deputy chairman of Hongkong Bank and HSBC Holdings, positions which she says she intends to retain. Peter Sutch, chairman of both Swire Pacific and its associate Cathay Pacific, said the firm would name Lady Dunn's replacement for the trading division next week.
Mr Sutch said his offer to Lady Dunn of a place on the main board in London had been long-standing.
She will follow a well-trodden route among Hong Kong's Swire hierachy.
