Iveagh, the UK-based investment management business backed by the Guinness family, has boosted its board with the addition of Gerry Aherne and Martin Harrison as non-executive directors in a bid to strengthen its focus on the retail fund management market.

Aherne, a former fund manager, is the chairman of Cenkos Securities and non-executive chairman of the Electric & General Investment Fund. Up until this year he was a non-executive director of Henderson Group, having been an executive director of Schroder Investment Management up to 2002.

Harrison was most recently senior director, mutual funds, at GAM, having previously headed up the firm’s distribution teams for the UK, South Africa and the offshore regions. Before joining GAM he was head of sales and marketing at GT Management.

The other members of Iveagh’s Board are Lord Iveagh, Edward Guinness, the Honourable Rory Guinness, the Honourable Henry Channon, Nicolo Sella Di Monteluce, Richard Ford (the firm’s chief executive) and Chris Wyllie (chief investment officer).

Earlier this year, Iveagh announced that it had removed the performance fee on the Iveagh Wealth Fund, previously 10 per cent over the hurdle set at three-month US dollar LIBOR.

Ford said at the time that the market has changed dramatically since the fund was launched in 2008, and that investors are now seeking more transparency and simplicity with regard to fees. The decision was also intended to have a positive impact on the fund’s competitiveness and reduce its total expense ratio.

The fund, along with the firm’s Core Portfolios, launched in February 2011, became available to investors in Northern Ireland at the start of this year.