A statement on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday confirmed Morton’s departure from the wealth and advice group.
It read: “John was instrumental in establishing the company in 2010 and is the last founder of the group still serving on the board.
“In the seven years of his stewardship, the business has built assets under management of over £1.7bn with offices in five countries, serving clients around the globe.”
No reason was given for his decision to take a leave of absence or for his departure.
Interim results
The stock exchange announcement follows the release of the group’s results for the six months ending 30 June 2017, which show that losses deepened to £831,000 from £523,000 during the same period last year.
“The increased loss is entirely the result of higher financing costs […] together with one-off extraordinary losses of £309,000,” according to the results statement.
The reason behind the ‘extraordinary loss’ was not given.
Replacement
Morton’s replacement has been named as Marianne Ismail, who was appointed interim chief executive on 13 September after Morton announced he would be taking “an agreed leave of absence”.
Ismail has been a non-executive director of European Wealth since December 2015. She has significant experience in the wealth management sector, having previously been managing director in Morgan Stanley’s asset management business.
She was also chief executive of global wealth management Europe at Citigroup and head of private banking for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Standard Chartered Bank.
Chairman Kenneth (Buzz) West said: “European Wealth is grateful to John for the vision, hard work and dedication which he has put into successfully growing the group over the last seven years.
“Whilst we are sorry to see his leave, we are also excited about the future,” West said.
