Hargreaves Lansdown chair set to step down after run-ins with founder
The chair of retail investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown is set to step down after a bruising series of run-ins with the firm’s founder.
In a statement yesterday, the Bristol-based DIY investing outfit said last night that it had begun scouting out “successor chair candidates” for Deanna Oppenheimer, who has overseen the firm since 2018.
News of the impending exit comes after a series of spats between Hargreaves Lansdown’s founder Peter Hargreaves, who still owns some 20 per cent of the firm, and the current management over the direction of the company.
Hargreaves has labelled Oppenheimer’s time at the top a “disaster” and has slammed the strategy pursued by chief Chris Hill.
Shares in the DIY investment outfit have cratered some 60 per cent in the past five years.
The firm said that as it prepares to welcome new chief executive Dan Olley from Tesco it was right to explore a change for the chair role.
“Recognising that the AGM on 8 December 2023 will be her sixth as Chair of the Board, and with the CEO transition successfully underway, aligned with good governance and succession planning practices, the Board has commenced an exercise to determine the attributes of any successor Chair candidates,” Hargreaves Lansdown said.
The firm added that “no decisions have been taken at this time” and it would provide further updates when “appropriate to do so”.