Jonathan Symonds

Jonathan Symonds CBE was appointed as Chairman to the GlaxoSmithKline plc Board on 1 September 2019.

Jon has extensive international financial and governance experience.

Jon was appointed as Deputy Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings plc in August 2018 and has been an Independent Non-Executive Director since April 2014.

He was previously Chairman of HSBC Bank plc, HSBC’s European subsidiary, which offers services to clients in the UK and Continental Europe. Jon was Chief Financial Officer of Novartis AG from 2009 to 2013. Before joining Novartis, he was a Partner and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs; Chief Financial Officer of AstraZeneca plc; and a Partner at KPMG. His governance experience includes roles as Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit Committees of Diageo plc and QinetiQ Group plc.

He is currently Chairman of Proteus Digital Health Inc. and of Genomics England Limited. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Rubius Therapeutics, Inc.

Jon is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He has a BA, First Class Honours in Business Finance from the University of Hertfordshire.