The London/Hong Kong-listed group has announced three appointments and three departures in a shake-up of its board.

HSBC has appointed Diageo's former chief executive, Paul Walsh, to its board and announced the departure of its longest serving non-executive directors.

Walsh was group chief executive of Diageo between 2000 and 2013. Under his leadership, Diageo was refocused from a diversified food, beverage and hotels conglomerate into a leading global alcoholic beverage business. Today, its brands include Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker and Baileys. At HSBC, he will take up his role as a non-executive director on 1 January, 2016.

Henri de Castries, who has been the chairman and chief executive of French insurer and asset manager AXA for the past five years, will also join the British banking group as a non-executive director on 1 March. 

HSBC also announced the departure of its longest serving non-executive directors, Rona Fairhead and Simon Robertson, who have served in their roles for almost 12 and 10 years respectively. Earlier this year, following claims HSBC's Swiss unit helped clients evade taxes, Fairhead faced calls from the Public Accounts Committee in parliament to step down from her position as chairman of the BBC Trust given her ties to HSBC.

Fairhead will hand over her responsibilities as chair of HSBC North America to Heidi Miller at the end of this year. She will retire at the group's 2016 annual general meeting, alongside deputy chairman Robertson. Non-executive director Safra Catz, who joined the board in 2008, will also be leaving at the end of 2015.

The boardroom shake-up comes at a time when HSBC considers whether to move its corporate headquarters out of the UK amid concerns surrounding increased government levies on banks in the country. In August, the group shifted Sridhar Chandrasekharan, the global chief executive of its $500 billion asset management arm, from London to Hong Kong in a bid to capitalise on growth opportunities in Asia. (To view HSBC's recent third-quarter performance, click here.)

“Simon as senior independent director until this year’s AGM provided a vital link to our shareholders and regulators and was a huge support to me in my role as chairman. Rona took on some of the most demanding governance responsibilities as chair of both the audit and risk committees during her term of office and most recently, as chair of our group in the US, has been overseeing a refocusing of its operations and enhancement of controls. Safra has been invaluable in terms of contributing to board strategy and performance appraisal in matters of technology,” said HSBC's group chairman, Douglas Flint.

“The appointments of Henri de Castries and Paul Walsh bring substantial additional strength to the HSBC board. Their extensive international business experience and track record in shaping growing businesses, including undertaking business portfolio realignments, will further strengthen the existing skills on the HSBC board.”