Laura Carstensen, who spent 20 years at law firm Slaughter and May as a partner and board member, has joined AJ Bell as a non-executive director to add “significant expertise and experience” to the board, the firm announced today.
She is currently non-executive chair of Park Group and a non-executive director of The Co-operative Bank where she chairs the values and ethics committee and is a member of the remuneration and risk committees.
Carstensen (pictured) has also been deputy chairman of the Competition Commission and a commissioner of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
This follows the announcement that AJ Bell had appointed Eamonn Flanagan, an analyst at Shore Capital, as non-executive director.
Les Platts, chairman of AJ Bell, said: “Laura adds significant experience to our board which I believe will be invaluable as we prepare for an IPO and beyond. We operate in a fast-growing sector of the financial services market and our continual focus on the needs of our customers is resulting in controlled and sustained expansion. Laura therefore joins us at a very exciting time and will help us continue this momentum through the next phase of our growth and development.”
Carstensen described AJ Bell as a “fantastic business with values that I greatly admire”.
She added: “I am looking forward to working with Les and the rest of the AJ Bell board to help steer the company through the planned IPO, while maintaining the commitment to customer service that has served it so well for many years.”
AJ Bell is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange towards the end of this year or early 2019.
On Wednesday it was revealed that the firm’s largest shareholders, Invesco Perpetual and AJ Bell founder Andy Bell, were expected to cut their 44% and 28% respective stakes to 25% and 25% to allow smaller investors access to the float.
The firm had previously said the float would include a retail share offer available exclusively to AJ Bell customers.
Star manager Neil Woodford sold his 8% holding just before the IPO was announced.
