AJ Bell has made Ryan Hughes managing director of AJ Bell Investments, after serving as interim managing director since late 2023.
Hughes has worked at AJ Bell since 2016, beginning as head of fund selection before advancing to head of investment partnerships in 2022. He brings 25 years of investment experience, including roles at Kohn Cougar, Chartwell Asset Management, Skandia Investment Group, and Apollo Multi Asset Management.
In the permanent managing director position, Hughes will join the AJ Bell Executive Committee and report to CEO Michael Summersgill.
“I’m honoured to be given the opportunity to lead the investment business at AJ Bell. We are growing rapidly, with AUM hitting £6.3bn at the end of June, up 47% in the last year alone. Our focus is on delivering strong investment performance via low-cost investment solutions and we are seeing particularly strong demand for MPS partnership arrangements with financial adviser firms,” Hughes said.
Deutsche Numis’s Steven Westgate has also been hired as group corporate development director, a new role for the firm. In addition to his time at Deutsche Numis, Westgate spent over a decade at Deutsche Bank and near five years with Credit Suisse.
“AJ Bell has delivered exceptional organic growth based on a sound strategy and commitment to making investing easy and low-cost for customers. I’m delighted to be joining the business and working with Michael and the rest of the AJ Bell team, with so many opportunities for the business to continue to develop its growth strategy,” Westgate said.
Summersgill added: “Since listing in 2018 AJ Bell has grown rapidly to become a business serving more than half a million platform customers, with assets under administration of £83.7bn. The remarkable growth of the business illustrates the success of our model, serving both the advised and D2C markets.
“Ryan and Stephen’s appointments add further depth to our leadership team, bringing new perspectives and thinking to help develop our strategy and identify further organic growth opportunities for the business.”
