Orbis Investments has added Nextwealth boss Heather Hopkins to its board as a director.
A filing from Companies House showed Hopkins (pictured) had been made a member on 2 November alongside former EY fintech lead Imran Gulamhuseinwala.
Hopkins is a well-known data expert, having served as the research director and then head of Centaur’s market–research firm Platforum. In 2017 she founded consultancy Nextwealth where she is managing director. She is also currently a non-executive director on the £1.9bn Mercantile Investment Trust.
Gulamhuseinwala is a trustee of the Open Banking Implementation Entity, as well as a board member of the charity commission for England and Wales and an investment committee member for Aviva Ventures, the fund group’s venture capital arm, according to his Linkedin profile. Prior to this he was a global fintech lead and partner at EY.
Together the pair flesh out Orbis’ existing five-strong board, which includes chairman Dan Brocklebank and head of Orbis UK retail Marcel Bradshaw.
Commenting on the recent board appointments Brocklebank said: “We are all thrilled to welcome Heather and Imran as independent directors at Orbis here in the UK. They each bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the board and I believe they will be an ideal fit at Orbis where we pride ourselves on doing things differently with a focus on fundamental, contrarian long-term investing. We very much look forward to working with both Heather and Imran as we continue on our mission to empower our clients by enhancing their savings and wealth.”
Orbis directors pocket £865k
The appointments were announced alongside the investment firm’s full-year results which showed pre-tax profits for the year ended 31 December 2019 had risen 11% to £709,143.
Turnover for the year was £7m, down slightly from the £7.1m in distribution fees generated in 2018.
Last year £864,244 was paid out to Orbis’ directors up from £861,741 the year before. The bulk of this went to Orbis’ highest-paid director who received remuneration of £519,821, though this was slightly lower than the £542,146 awarded in 2018.
UK subsidiary Orbis Investments is 100% owned by Orbis SA Limited, which is a Bermuda incorporated business.
According to its website, the investment firm had £25bn in assets under management globally by the end of September.
See also: Orbis hails trio of underperforming funds as value for money due to fee structure
