Stephen Hester and his post-RBS 'holiday' plans He graduated in 1982 with a first class degree in PPE from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where he had chaired the Tory Reform Group, before taking up the position of chairman's assistant at Credit Suisse. He was later appointed the bank's youngest managing director, before moving on to be finance director at Abbey National in 2002, and later chief executive of British Land in 2004. Early in 2008, Hester became non-executive deputy chairman of Northern Rock, before leaving in the September in order to establish himself at the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he made his name and helped reestablish the bank in the wake of the financial crash and the departure of Fred Goodwin. Despite his replacment by New Zealander McEwan, Hester remains in good spirits. "I think RBS is in much better shape than we had any right to think it could be," he said on Friday. I want the company to have a good future and I want to pass the baton on smoothly and without rancour or difficulty. I am happy with this result.