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Major UK Asset Manager Unveils New Leadership
Editorial Staff
11 September 2024
UK-listed investment management group , overseeing £506 billion ($660.7 billion) as at the end of June, has named Jason Windsor as group CEO, taking the role full-time after having held it on a part-time basis. The appointment is subject to regulatory clearance. For another senior appointment by the firm, see here.
Prior to being interim CEO, Windsor was group chief financial officer. With effect from 10 September 2024, Windsor's salary has been set at £800,000 per annum.
The firm, based in Edinburgh, has been through significant changes. On 24 May this year, the firm said it had started a move to fresh leadership after shifting the firm to the status of a specialist asset manager with a digital focus. It has been restructuring business lines and has shed jobs. The business, previously called Standard Life Aberdeen, was rebranded in 2021. In January 2024 abrdn said it wanted to save around £150 million per year and would cut around 500 jobs as part of this strategy.
"I am delighted that Jason emerged from what was a very thorough process as the unanimous choice of the board to lead abrdn in its next phase,” Sir Douglas Flint, chairman of abrdn, said.
Ian Jenkins will continue as interim group CFO while the firm starts to search for a permanent appointment for that position.
Windsor worked for more than a decade within the UK’s Aviva Group, latterly as group CFO. Before this, he was CFO of Aviva's UK insurance businesses, chief capital and investments officer and a director on the board of Aviva Investors. Windsor joined Aviva in 2010 as group strategy and M&A director, following a 15-year career at Morgan Stanley in London and Singapore, where he was most latterly MD in its investment banking division advising financial sector clients.
In the first six months of 2024, abrdn's IFRS pre-tax profit swung back into a profit of £187 million, against a loss of £169 million. Net operating revenue fell 7 per cent year-on-year to £667 million.