Stephen Green, chairman of HSBC, is stepping down to become the British trade minister;  a former co-president of Goldman Sachs - John Thornton - is considered to be among the possible leading candidates.  Mr. Green joined HSBC in 1982 and the executive board in 1998 and, in 2003 he became CEO for the group. 

Mr. Thornton joined the board of HSBC in 2008, when he was also appointed nonexecutive chairman of the bank’s North American subsidiary.  His résumé, with his wide network of China contacts, would clearly be appealing to HSBC, which while based in London is very much an Asian bank - its CEO relocated to Hong Kong.  Mr. Thornton taught at the Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in China and served as a director of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Mr. Thornton retired from Goldman in 2003, leaving John Thain as sole president of the firm - he apparently realized he would not succeed Hank Paulson Jr. as CEO any time soon.  At the time, the NYTimes said:  "In many ways, Mr. Thornton was the prototypical Goldman Sachs banker. He joined the firm in 1980 and became a partner at the age of 34. An expert at mergers, he made his name by importing cutthroat deal-making tactics to the sleepy London markets in the 1980s. He soon became a silky, ubiquitous presence in corporate board rooms on both sides of the Atlantic."   [NYT Dealbook, 9/7]