Standard Chartered global CEO Bill Winters on Friday said he was “sorry” for comments describing “lower-value” workers, made while announcing job-cut plans earlier this week.
Winters apologised in a LinkedIn post as he tried to cool debate among upset employees after he announced on Tuesday a 15 per cent cut of back-office staff at the lender by 2030. Winters said that AI adoption would replace some “lower-value human capital”.
The CEO first made a LinkedIn post explaining his comments from earlier this week, before then posting for a second time, apologising for his Tuesday remarks.
“I have received a lot of support for the messages in my previous post,” wrote Winters in his second LinkedIn post on Friday. “But still get questions about my choice of words, which I know has caused upset to some colleagues.”
“For that I am sorry,” he said, attaching a transcript from the media briefing on Tuesday to the post. The transcript included the controversial remarks, as well as other comments he made about his commitment to helping staff reskill.
“I think the transcript makes it clear that I value our colleagues – all of them – most highly and that we are totally committed to helping them to cope with the accelerating pace of change in our industry,” he said.
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