Schroders Personal Wealth has appointed the former boss of Openwork as its chief executive, Portfolio Adviser has learned.
Mark Duckworth (pictured) will join SPW in September after completing a period of garden leave.
It comes after the firm’s CEO Peter Hetherington announced he was stepping down from the role after less than a year. Schroders head of UK distribution and Latin America James Rainbow, who was CEO of SPW for four months after the wealth management joint venture launched, has moved back into the role on an interim basis.
Duckworth stood down as CEO of Openwork in February after 10 years with the firm. He was replaced by former Rathbones boss Philip Howell. Duckworth was initially a commercial development director before becoming CEO five years ago.
During his tenure he led Openwork through its transition to independence from Zurich Insurance Group and turned around its financial performance delivering pre-tax profits of £22.6m in 2018.
Schroders Personal Wealth chairman Antonio Lorenzo said: “I am delighted to announce the appointment of Mark Duckworth as CEO. Mark has a huge amount of experience in financial services, in wealth management in particular and we’re all very much looking forward to having him on board.”
Duckworth said: “I am delighted to be joining SPW. It has a fantastic brand, built on the heritage of its parent companies, significant capital behind it and, most importantly, the ambition to grow to become a market leading advice business in the UK. I very much look forward to meeting the executive team, colleagues, our advisers and clients in September.”
