Abrdn is planning to shake-up its senior investment team as CIO Rod Paris plans to retire at the end of the year.
The FTSE 100 manager, which rebranded from Standard Life Aberdeen earlier this year, plans to restructure its investment management team around “pillars of strategic importance for clients,” namely, public markets, real assets, solutions and central investments.
The reshuffle follows Paris’ decision to retire by the end of 2021, after 40 years in the industry, and “will empower a talented team with deep investment experts to meet clients’ needs today and in the future,” Abrdn said.
Devan Kaloo will step up to become global head of public markets, supported by Craig Macdonald as deputy head. Kaloo and Macdonald will continue in their roles as global head of equities and global head of fixed income, respectively.
The real assets franchise will be headed up by Neil Slater who will oversee the firm’s real estate and infrastructure capabilities.
Robert McKillop and Archie Struthers will continue to lead the global product and solutions business and central investments teams respectively. McKillop will be directly supported by Aymeric Forest, global head of multi-asset solutions. Struthers will assume responsibility for Abrdn’s governance framework, investment execution and investment platform and continue to lead on the firm’s responsible investing and stewardship activity.
All four “pillars” will report directly to CEO Stephen Bird (pictured).
Bird said: “Investment management is at the heart of what we do and I believe that this evolution to our structure will allow us to better align with the evolving needs of our clients, and the pace and scale of change across the industry. It’s indicative of the confident, futurist business that our new brand Abrdn represents.”
He went on to thank Paris for his “enormous contribution” since joining Abrdn in 2002.
“I will personally miss his wisdom, support and his fierce intelligence. He leaves a fantastic legacy for us to continue to build on.”
