Dive Brief:
- HSBC has appointed Julian Wentzel as its new chief sustainability officer, a spokesperson for the bank confirmed to ESG Dive Tuesday. Wentzel has worked at HSBC for almost a decade.
- Wentzel took on the permanent role of sustainability chief on Feb. 7, after serving as interim chief sustainability officer at the bank for over a month. He assumed the role following former CSO Celine Herweijer’s departure at the end of 2024.
- “Supporting the transition to net zero remains a priority for HSBC and for the customers we serve,” HSBC’s Chief Financial Officer Pam Kaur said in a Friday internal memo, seen by ESG Dive, announcing Wentzel’s appointment.
Dive Insight:
Wentzel has worked at HSBC since November 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. The bank named him interim chief sustainability officer after Herweijer stepped down following a corporate reshuffle that downsized the bank’s executive committee. The reshuffle ultimately eliminated the role of CSO from that committee.
In the Nov. 24 statement announcing her exit, HSBC said Herweijer was departing her role to “pursue new opportunities,” and that the bank had begun recruiting a permanent successor for the CSO role.
Prior to taking on the interim CSO role, Wentzel had served as HSBC’s head of global banking for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey since 2022. In that role, Wentzel “engaged closely with some of [HSBC’s] most strategic customers on their sustainability goals,” according to the bank’s memo.
HSBC said Wentzel brings a “strong client and commercial lens” to HSBC’s sustainability agenda and that his “leadership and depth of experience across Global Banking and its infrastructure products” will be “key to enabling further progress in supporting [HSBC’s] portfolio of customers to diversify and decarbonise.”
“In this role, Julian will continue to lead our sustainability agenda as we work to enable our customers to make even greater progress towards their transition priorities, and realise the benefits of a more resilient global economy for our businesses, our shareholders, and the markets we operate in,” Kaur’s memo said.
Before joining HSBC as its head of banking in Africa almost a decade ago, Wentzel held various executive positions — from leading the cash equities division to managing research teams — at the Macquarie Group, an Australian global financial services organization. HSBC noted that Wentzel has worked in banking for over 25 years across a myriad of sectors and geographies.
“I’ve worked at the forefront of supporting our customers — some of whom face the most ambitious and challenging transitions — to finance and deliver against their sustainability ambitions and to identify innovative solutions to enable their progress,” Wentzel wrote in a Feb. 7 LinkedIn post. “I am looking forward to leveraging this experience at greater scale.”
HSBC’s CSO appointment comes as banks and financial institutions are facing heightened scrutiny over their sustainability efforts, particularly in the United States. In the months leading up to President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Wall Street has initiated a mass exodus from climate alliances and groups — a move that several experts believe is a precautionary step by banks to avoid further scrutiny from new federal government leadership that includes a Republican majority in both the House and Senate.
