Barclays’ new head gardener

3 March 2007

Scrupulously well-mannered and impeccably dressed, with matinée idol looks, Agius is easy to underestimate. But beneath the understated charm is a steely traditionalist with an analytical brain, who believes in doing the right thing whatever the circumstances. ‘Marcus puts his clients first, second and third,’ added Jones at the party. ‘And he always makes the job fun.’

Agius is also adept at managing big egos, something that should come in handy at Barclays where Varley, Diamond and the new boss of retail and commercial banking, Frits Seegers, are all strong characters. He will bring a good-humoured calm to board meetings that may have been missing under the previous chairman, the Canadian Matt Barrett. It is one reason that deputy chairman Sir Nigel Rudd pushed for his appointment. ‘We have enough testosterone around here,’ says Rudd. ‘We need a mediator, a facilitator, an ambassador — and for that nobody is better suited than Marcus.’

Agius learned about strong-willed people early on. Born in 1946, he grew up in a rumbustious Catholic family in Walton-on-Thames, the fifth of six children. ‘It was a very happy childhood, with lots of noise and never enough money,’ he recalls. His Maltese grandparents arrived in London in the 19th century; he is one of 303 descendants of his great-grandfather Edward Tancred Agius. His father was a colonel in the first world war who later became trade commissioner for Malta; his mother had been a model in the 1920s and was half German and half Irish — ‘with all that that implies’, he says fondly. He was educated at St George’s College in Surrey by Josephite monks committed to gentleness and a sense of family. It rubbed off. ‘I think that the disintegration of the family in this country is the biggest tragedy my generation has witnessed.’