Martin Gilbert to leave Standard Life Aberdeen and join fintech Revolut
Veteran investor Martin Gilbert is stepping down from Standard Life Aberdeen next year, calling time on a high-flying career as one of the City’s most prominent asset managers.
Poised to take on a new role as chair of fintech giant Revolut, Gilbert said this morning that he will not seek re-election as vice-chairman of the FTSE 100 giant.
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Gilbert’s departure comes less than two years after he oversaw an £11bn merger between Aberdeen Asset Management and Standard Life Investments that created one of Europe’s largest ever fund managers.
Having founded Aberdeen Asset Management in 1983, Gilbert quickly established himself a reputation as one of the City’s most prominent fund managers.
The firm listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1991, eight years after it was founded, and went on to grow rapidly as it acquired assets across Asia and Europe and established offices in Singapore and Hong Kong.
Gilbert continued to grow the company through multiple acquisitions including Barclays Property Investment, Murray Johnstone, Edinburgh Fund Managers and RBS Asset Management.
Gilbert became co-chief executive of the business when it combined with Standard Life, but stepped down from the role in March this year.
The company scrapped its co-chief executive structure in March with Keith Skeoch being appointed sole chief executive and Gilbert moving to take the vice-chair role.
With the board’s agreement he will retire from the company on 30 September 2020.
Gilbert said: “It has been an incredible journey, almost unimaginable from the earliest days when we were just three people in one office in Aberdeen with £50m under management to today’s total in excess of £500bn.”
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He added: “I will leave the company in extremely good hands, and well positioned for further growth and prosperity. I am very proud of our achievements over the past three decades, but I still have a great enthusiasm for growing and guiding businesses and I am looking forward to fresh challenges in the next stage of my career.”
Sir Douglas Flint, chairman, said: “It is impossible to overstate Martin’s achievement in building Aberdeen Asset Management into a truly global and widely respected investment firm.”
Standard Life Aberdeen’s shares fell 1.8 per cent this morning to 278p.