Cobban to leave post at Barclays

Barclays Bank is losing Nick Cobban, PR head for its Retail

Financial Services division, after 16 years.

Cobban will leave Barclays at the end of the year and is looking at

other in-house and consultancy opportunities. He is currently the most

senior PR person in the division but this will change with the arrival

in November of Paul Barber, currently corporate affairs director at

distribution group Inchcape. Barber will be the division’s first

communications director.

Barber’s role will be wider than Cobban’s but Cobban said: ’I am sure

that Paul and I would work well together, but Paul’s background is

primarily in PR and I am sure he will want to do things his own way,

just as I would in his position, and I think it’s only fair to give him

a free hand.’

Barclays Retail Financial Services was formed following a restructure of

the group into four divisions in April. Communications were also

restructured with each division being allocated a separate director of

communications.

Retail Financial Services includes Barclays Bank, Barclaycard, and

Barclays Life. It also handles retail operations in Europe, Africa and

the Caribbean.

Cobban currently runs a team of ten and reports to division chief

executive John Varley. He is responsible for media relations and

selected public affairs and internal communications issues.

During his time at Barclays Cobban has occupied various positions

including deputy corporate affairs director and PR head for UK banking

services. He was previously head of PR at the Co-operative Bank in

Manchester.

Barber joins Barclays Retail Financial Services from Inchcape in

November and said that he will look closely at the communications

structure before deciding whether to replace Cobban. He said: ’Nick is

an experienced operator and him going is a loss but it’s too early to

say what effect it will have at Barclays.’

Earlier this week, Cobban’s department handled the announcement that

Barclaycard is to shed 1,100 jobs.