Walker, who leads the global long-term unconstrained team, will hand over responsibilities to Zehrid Osmani.
The team is responsible for $500m of assets under management.
Martin Currie told Portfolio Adviser the handover would take several months, but they said a date for Walker’s retirement had not been set.
AJ Bell head of active portfolios Ryan Hughes said Walker is experienced both in tenure and range of strategies he managed.
Walker has been responsible for Asian, US and global funds.
Hughes said it would be interesting to see if Osmani can make further strides with advisers, noting Martin Currie had been a “little bit forgotten”.
The Edinburgh-based asset manager was acquired by Legg Mason in 2014. Hughes reckoned there was room for the boutique to gain greater profile within the US parent company’s brand.
Osmani was responsible for pan-European strategies at Blackrock with a particular focus on unconstrained, high conviction, long term portfolios, driven by fundamental research.
He said that experience aligned itself with Martin Currie’s focus on high conviction equity portfolios.
“As the flagship international active equity specialist within the Legg Mason group, there are also exciting opportunities for Martin Currie to leverage the capability of one of the world’s largest asset management firms and grow assets.”
Martin Currie runs $19bn across long-term unconstrained, and three other strategies: market aware; sustainable income and growth; and absolute returns.
