Oct 13 (Reuters) - Barclays on Friday named investment banking veteran Geoffrey Belsher as chairman and country chief executive officer for Canada, effective Oct. 16.

Belsher has previously held senior role in Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. He was also the president of Canadian operations of Barclays Capital and its predecessor Lehman Brothers Canada, according to the company's statement.

Belsher would be based in Toronto and report to CEO of Americas Richard Haworth and the global co-heads of investment banking Cathal Deasy and Taylor Wright.

He would succeed Bruce Rothney, whose exit, however, the company did not disclose.

More than two dozen investment bankers have left Barclays' U.S. operations earlier in the year for rivals including Citigroup and Jefferies Financial Group as the bank goes through several managerial changes, Reuters reported in June.

(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)