Hargreaves Lansdown founder Peter Hargreaves has picked asset management veteran Adrian Collins to serve on the board of directors as part of a new shareholder agreement with the D2C platform.
Hargreaves has been slowly reducing his stake in the company but a new shareholder arrangement means he is allowed to nominate one non-executive director to the board as long as he and his associates control at least 10% of Hargreaves Lansdown’s voting rights. He had served on the Hargreaves Lansdown board until 2015 and currently holds a 23.9% stake.
Collins (pictured) is now set to join the board from 2 November.
He has 40 years’ experience working in the fund management business, most recently at Liontrust where he was chairman from 2009 to 2019. He co-founded Trustnet and has also worked at Gartmore, Jupiter, Bestinvest and Lazard Investors.
See also: Outgoing Liontrust chair reflects as final results bring £1.8bn flows
Due to his appointment to Hargreaves Lansdown’s board he will step down from non-executive directorships at LTC Holdings and Heritage Collins. He remains chairman of Eddie Stobart and CIP Merchant Capital and non-executive director at Bahamas Petroleum and the Sri Lanka Fund.
Hargreaves Lansdown chairwoman Deanna Oppenheimer said: “Adrian’s presence on the board will provide an avenue to harness Peter’s wealth of experience, while also allowing us to benefit from Adrian’s considerable expertise in the fund management industry.”
In September, Hargreaves Lansdown appointed Andrea Blance and Moni Mannings to the board. The appointments came as the D2C platform looked to overhaul its risk and governance controls following the Neil Woodford scandal.
John Troiano, former head of distribution at Schroders, was appointed to the board in January.
Earlier this year, Hargreaves announced he would be reducing his stake in the company to diversify his assets as part of his “long-term financial planning”. At the time he sold off £550m.
He also launched a £100m foundation to support young people with disabilities or from disadvantaged backgrounds to “lead a full life through engagement in education, sport and associated activities”.
