Strategy
Fidelity Reshuffles Top Management

UK-based fund manager Fidelity International has reshuffled its top managers over the summer in a move to refine its management structure, boost investment performance and revitalise businesses that it has identified as growth areas, according to the Financial Times. Michael Gordon, formerly global chief investment officer, has been appointed global head of fixed income and head of investment strategy. He will be responsible for securing Fidelity's target of increasing fixed income and other alternative assets from 10 to 40 per cent of assets under management. Nicky Richards, recruited from Schroders to be chief investment officer of European equities, is to be responsible for developing Fidelity's derivatives business. She has also joined Fidelity's senior management committee. Meanwhile Simon Fraser, currently head of Fidelity's $91 billion institutional fund business, is to take charge of the multi-manager business, which has about $1 billion under management. Richard Wastcoat, UK managing director, has stepped down after 10 years at the helm of Fidelity's UK retail business. His decision followed Fidelity's move to separate out the FundsNetwork supermarket business, which has expanded to about $20 billion under management in seven years. Robin Higginbotham, recruited earlier this year from Schroders as president of Fidelity's European retail business, is taking over immediate responsibility for Fidelity's remaining UK retail business until a replacement for Mr Wastcoat is found. Fidelity is also searching for a new fixed-income chief investment officer, a new head of its institutional business as well as a new head of UK retail. Fidelity International, which is one of the UK's largest retail fund management groups, was split out from Fidelity Investments in the US in 1979 to manage the US company's international business. Since then it has built its funds under management to about $300 billion, with about $169 billion in retail funds. About $40 billion of this is in UK funds sold to private investors. The company, privately owned by staff and the Johnson family who founded Fidelity Investments in the US, has accelerated expansion in the past few years, setting up new offices in more than 20 countries. Fidelity says it embraces the Japanese concept of "kaizen" – the idea of continuous change and improvement. The group has outlined its ambitions to becoming a more broadly-based international financial services provider over the next five years with up to $500 billion in assets. The new structure is intended to achieve this.