The UK-listed business has brought in a senior figure from the UK's brokerage and financial services industry to its board.

UK wealth and brokerage house WHIreland today announced the appointment of Humphrey Percy, chief executive of Kuwaiti European Holding Group, as a non-executive director. 

His appointment follows the announcement in September that KEH had acquired a 23.1 per cent stake in WHIreland, making it the largest shareholder.

Percy, among other previous roles, was global head of futures at ICAP, the brokerage firm, and head of global financial markets at Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale.

“WHIreland has undergone significant change over the last twelve months and the business has a very clear strategy for the next stage of its development,” Percy said in a statement. 

WHIreland has seen a number of recent internal and external senior appointments, outsourcing deals (such as with SEI) and a reduction in its number of offices. These changes came amidst a challenging time for the firm. In February, it was fined £1.2 million (around $1.7 million) by the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK regulator, for failing to have controls in place to prevent market abuse. (This publication recently interviewed management about changes and its current wealth management strategy; see here for the article.)

Percy joins three other non-executive directors and two executive directors including CEO Richard Killingbeck.

“We signalled at the time of the share acquisition that it was intended that a representative of KEH be appointed to the board and we are very pleased that Humphrey will be taking this role," Killingbeck said. “We believe that Humphrey’s wealth of experience in the financial services sector will help strengthen the Board and widen the skill sets available to the business as it looks to develop and implement its growth strategies,” he added.