Abrdn
CEO Stephen Bird is set to exit after a “significant strategic repositioning of the company”, with current CFO Jason Windsor stepping in as interim group CEO.
Bird has been in the role for the past four years, overseeing the company’s fall out of the FTSE 100 last August. In its full year results for 2023, the company had seen a 35% increase in outflows. Total assets under management (AUM) fell by near 1%, aided positively by the acquisition of Interactive Investor.
“It has been a privilege to lead Abrdn through an intensely challenging time in our industry and I am grateful to my colleagues for their support and commitment to serving our clients with distinction,” he said.
Premier Miton
The firm has made Ian Rees, who has been with the company for over two decades, the sole head of its multi-manager team.
Rees was previously co-head of the team with David Hambidge. In the new structure, Rees will take on day-to-day management, but Hambidge will continue to attend fund research and sector meetings as well as chair the team’s ‘macro and markets’ meetings.
Rees joined the multi-manager team in 2005 and started at Premier Miton in 2000. He will begin his new role on 1 July, overseeing a range of eight funds including the Multi-Asset Distribution fund.
Liontrust
GAM’s head of global equities Mark Hawtin has now joined Liontrust, alongside his former team, to form a new global equities arm at the firm.
The team, which will also comprise GAM’s David Goodman, Kevin Kruczynski and Pieran Maru, will mark the eighth investment team under Liontrust’s belt.
The managers will take over the helm of “a range of global equity funds”, including Liontrust Balanced and Liontrust Global Alpha. Hawtin and Goodman will also head up the GAM Star Alpha Technology fund, which will be moved across to Liontrust.
Meanwhile, Ewan Thompson, Tom Smith and Ruth Chambers, along with their emerging market and Japan equity funds, will move internally to join the global equities team.
Aviva Investors
The firm has named Fraser Lundie as global head of fixed income.
Lundie joins from Federated Hermes, where he was head of fixed income, public markets. He joined Hermes in 2010 as a senior credit portfolio manager, before becoming head of credit in 2012.
In the newly-created role, he will have overall responsibility for the firm’s global rates, investment grade, high yield, emerging market debt and global liquidity teams.
