John Silvester Varley
John Silvester Varley (born 1 April 1956) is an English banker who was the group chief executive of Barclays from 2004 to 2011. Early life John Silvester Varley was born in Warwick. His father, Philip, was a solicitor in Coventry. Varley was educated at the Catholic Downside School at Stratton-on-the-Fosse south of Bath, becoming head librarian, then at Oriel College, Oxford (MA History), and London's College of Law. Career He became a solicitor with Frere Cholmeley (which became Frere Cholmeley Bischoff and was then bought by Eversheds in 1998) in 1979. Varley joined Barclays in 1982, as part of the Corporate Finance Department of the then Barclays Merchant Bank. Senior appointments with the successor bank, BZW (now Barclays Capital), included deputy chief executive of BZW's Equity Division and head of BZW's offices in South East Asia. In 1995 he became chairman of the Asset Management Division and from April 1998 to October 2000 was chief executive, retail financial services. He joined the main Barclays board on 5 June 1998 and was group finance director from 2000 until the end of 2003. On 1 January 2004, Varley became group deputy chief executive, and on 1 September 2004 he succeeded Matthew Barrett