Intellectual and affable — Antonio Horta-Osorio, Britain’s youngest bank chief

António Mota de Sousa Horta-Osório, to give him his full name, becomes the youngest chief executive of a UK-listed bank by a country mile.

At 46, he represents a different generation of bankers to the men who have run our High Street in the past.

He was tipped to be the next boss of the whole of Santander until today's coup by Lloyds.
Not only is Horta-Osório a most affable and highly diplomatic operator, but he has an intellectual background to match anyone.

Born in Lisbon, he joined Citigroup's Portuguese operations while at the same time remaining an assistant professor at the Universidade Católica Portugesa.

Horta-Osório took an MBA at the European academic powerhouse Insead in 1991 where he came top of his class, winning the prestigious Henry Ford II Prize.

But Horta-Osório is no dusty, dry academic. His hobby is scuba diving, and among his hundreds of dives more than 100 have been to look at sharks, including cage diving with three great whites in South Africa.

He is also widely seen as the man behind Santander's highly successful sponsorship of the McLaren Formula One team and its British drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button.

Horta-Osório has lived in London with his wife and their two daughters and son since he took over the running of Santander UK in 2006.