GSK confirms bank exec to take over as board chairman

Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline will have a new chairman a year from now: Philip Hampton, the current chair at Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Hampton will first join the GSK board as of Jan. 1 as a director.

Hampton will replace Christopher Gent in the chairman’s role.

The change could take place sooner if Hampton is “released from other commitments,” GSK (NYSE: GSK) said in a statement Thursday.

The Times of London first reported the news and said the results are part of a shakeup triggered by the recent GSK bribery scandal in China.

GSK issued a public apology for its role last week.

The GSK announcement said nothing about China in the chairman announcement. pointing out that it was part of an “extensive succession planning process.”

Earlier, Hampton announced that he was leaving the company and joining the GSK board.

Hampton has been chairman since February 2009, shortly after the onset of the financial crisis. Britain bailed out RBS, which remains 81 percent taxpayer-owned.

The group said Thursday that Hampton’s departure was in line with his intention to serve between five and seven years.

Britain saved RBS with a 45 billion-pound ($71 billion) capital injection after CEO Fred Goodwin brought the bank to near-collapse with an aggressive global expansion strategy that included the ill-fated purchase of Dutch lender ABN Amro.

But the problems didn’t end with the rescue and the RBS leadership has struggled to unravel years of excess.

GSK operates its North American headquarters in RTP.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)