Morrissey, who was chief executive of Newton Investment Management for 15 years, will join the firm in May this year amid plans to improve its savings and investments service as technology and customer behaviour changes.
She said she wanted to make a “real difference” to how the industry engages its customers.
“LGIM has the potential to be not just a market leader in this space but to develop a genuinely different approach. We are looking forward to building a savings business with strong and direct connections with our customers, including those who have never really thought about investing before or find existing offerings off-putting,” she said.
“There is no doubt that the UK direct savings market is highly competitive and moving very quickly: we are looking to get to the point where we are all using technology to access funds in the same way that we use Amazon to access books. Our focus will be on building a service, not a sales process.”
As a long-time campaigner for more diversity in the workplace, Morrissey is also the founder of the 30% Club and chairman of the Diversity Project and aims to help LGIM achieve gender balance in its workforce by 2020.
She will continue to chair the Diversity Project alongside her new role with LGIM where she will report to CEO Mark Zinkula, and join LGIM’s board from 1 May 2017.
Zinkuka said: “We are very excited that Helena is joining us at LGIM. She is highly respected and one of the most progressive thinkers in the industry. She is passionate about understanding and meeting the needs of investors, and is the right person to lead LGIM’s direct to consumer business.”
