AJ Bell
The investment platform has attracted two female financial services heavyweights as non-executive directors.
Baroness Helena Morrissey recently stepped down from the St James’s Place board, with the intention of her succeeding AJ Bell chair Les Platts at the company’s next AGM in January 2022.
Morrissey only became a non-executive director at SJP at the start of 2020, and made a controversial start by publicly criticising the firm’s charging structure.
She is joined by Evelyn Bourke, former chief executive of Bupa and formerly of Friends Provident, Standard Life and Chase de Vere.
Both will join the board on 1 July 2021.
Axa
The chairman of Axa’s board of directors, Denis Duverne, will retire at the end of his current mandate in April 2022.
Following a comprehensive succession process led by the compensation & governance committee over the past two years, the board has unanimously decided to appoint Antoine Gosset-Grainville as successor.
Gosset-Grainville is a partner and co-founder of BDGS associes law firm. He was appointed to the Axa board as a director on 30 June 2020.
Aegon Asset Management
Franky Tam has been named general manager and legal representative of Aegon Asset Management’s wholly foreign-owned enterprise (WFOE) subsidiary in China.
With effect from 1 March, Tam is working from the firm’s Shanghai office and report to Mabel Cho, regional head of Asia for Aegon AM.
Aegon AM established a WFOE in July 2020, and is now preparing to apply for a relevant license which allows it to raise funds domestically and sell its range of offshore traditional and alternative investments, overseas equity and bond funds, hedge funds and real estate products to Chinese institutions and high net worth investors.
Blacktower Financial Management
Paul Brown has been named head of the Nexus IFA Network. He was previously group director of Blacktower.
His appointment is with effect from October 2020.
Brown was chairman of WorldWideBroker Netherlands, which merged with Blacktower in 2014.
Wise Funds
One of the longest-serving UK fund managers, Tony Yarrow, is to retire. He will step down from the company he founded, Wise Funds, at the end of June – a couple of months shy of his 70th birthday.
Yarrow commenced his career as a financial adviser in 1984 and began managing funds in 1988.
He founded Wise Investments in 1992 to help people manage their investments and then in 2004, he launched the first of the two multi-asset funds managed through their sister company, Wise Funds.
His seasoned co-portfolio managers at Wise Funds, Vincent Ropers and Philip Matthews, will continue to co-manage both funds as they have since joining in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
Tilney Smith & Williamson
The wealth management and professional services group has recruited Henk Van De Beek as a financial planner for Tilney Financial Planning in Nottingham.
He joins from Mattioli Woods where he spent over three and a half years as a wealth management consultant.
Oak Group
Chris Sharman has been appointed private wealth director at Oak Trust Guernsey, part of Oak Group.
With a focus on international clients, Sharman’s role will be to help manage client relationships primarily in the commercial real estate sector.
He joins from Intertrust, where he had been a director for 17 years, and will report to Paul Shreibke, managing director of Oak Trust Guernsey.
