Martin Gilbert exits Standard Life Aberdeen with the crown of the industry’s leading deal maker as the £570bn behemoth he helped establish confirms he will leave the business in 2020.
Gilbert will move to a four-day week from the start of 2020 before retiring on 30 September.
He has spent 36 years at the helm of the business since co-founding Aberdeen Asset Management out of an investment trust in 1983. It started with £50m assets under management and following the Standard Life merger holds £577.5bn.
He had been co-CEO with Keith Skeoch since the businesses merged but Standard Life Aberdeen announced in May Gilbert would step back leaving Skeoch as the sole chief executive.
Fund industry’s leading deal maker
Tilney managing director Jason Hollands described him as the “leading deal maker in the asset management industry” with the Standard Life merger creating a “true behemoth in scale and breadth of expertise”.
Chelsea Financial Services managing director Darius McDermott said Gilbert had brought the business back from the brink during the split-cap investment trust scandal of the early 2000s.
“Most observers would have thought that Aberdeen Asset Management was close to the end,” McDermott said, noting the bulk of its fund range was sold to New Star bar Asian and emerging market products.
“Aberdeen, as it was, started again and it was a real regrowth story, served by lots of acquisitions.”
Gilbert was known as a “vivacious character full of energy and drive”, he said.
Gars and Scottish Widows challenges
But challenges remain ahead for Standard Life Aberdeen as Gilbert steps back, said Hollands.
“In the near term, it has further work to do delivering on the merger benefits in terms of capitalising on enhanced distribution and has been impacted by outflows from legacy products such as Gars and the distraction of loss of the Scottish Widows mandates,” he said.
“However, look beyond these and its financial scale and wider investment capabilities should leave the business much better positioned to withstand a potentially tougher climate to come than smaller rivals.”
The Standard Life Aberdeen share price highlights how difficult the merger has been, said McDermott.
“He bought the Scottish Widows business, he’s bought several other asset management businesses and assimilated them, whereas this one was a merger. I think it will have probably been a little bit more challenging than just buying another business.”
From £50m to more than £500bn
Standard Life Aberdeen chairman Douglas Flint described Gilbert’s “ability to attract talent” and “unrelenting commitment to the firm’s clients”.
“It is impossible to overstate Martin’s achievement in building Aberdeen Asset Management into a truly global and widely respected investment firm,” Flint said.
Gilbert said Standard Life Aberdeen would remain “close to his heart” as he takes on “fresh challenges”.
“It has been an incredible journey, almost unimaginable from the earliest days when we were just three people in one office in Aberdeen with £50m under management to today’s total in excess of £500bn,” he said.
In July, it was reported Gilbert would become chairman of challenger bank Revolut.
