Another woman lands top L&G job
LEGAL & General has added another woman to its senior team with the appointment of a chief executive to run its investment management arm.
The company poached Michelle Scrimgeour from Columbia Threadneedle where she was chief executive for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The 55-year-old will take over as boss of Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), which is the UK’s largest asset manager and looks after £985bn of savings. Her staff will include Helena Morrissey, LGIM’s head of personal investing and former boss of asset manager Newton.
The appointment of Scrimgeour means four of L&G’s seven divisions are led by women, with Laura Mason head of institutional retirement, Cheryl Agius leading general insurance and Claire Singleton running the mature savings unit. L&G chief executive Nigel Wilson has said in the past that as a father of five daughters he is ‘very conscious of the fact many women are not achieving their full potential’. ‘I have a vested interest, it’s true,’ he said in a recent interview. ‘Of course I want them to be treated equally. I want the same for other people’s daughters.’
Scrimgeour has worked in the asset management industry for 30 years since the ‘Big Bang era’ of the late 1980s, when the finance industry was transformed by sudden rule changes that relaxed regulations.
She previously worked at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, Blackrock and M&G before joining Columbia Threadneedle in April 2017.
Her appointment follows a wide-ranging, six-month search process to replace outgoing LGIM chief Mark Zinkula, who has been chief executive since 2011 and announced last year he would be leaving.
Zinkula will work closely with Scrimgeour until he departs in August, L&G said.
It is thought that her experience in fixed income investing and risk management helped her clinch the role.
Wilson, who has been chief executive since 2012, welcomed her appointment.
Morrissey, another high-profile figure who has championed women’s success in finance, will report to Scrimgeour. Author of A Good Time To Be A Girl and a mother of nine, Morrissey founded the 30pc Club in 2010 to encourage FTSE 100 boards to adopt a minimum target of being 30pc female.
The percentage of women on FTSE 100 boards by 2018 was 29pc, up from 12.5pc when the 30pc Club was launched.
Mason has been chief executive of L& G’s institutional retirement business since January 2018, while Agius has been the boss of general insurance since December 2016. Singleton was promoted to lead the mature savings unit last July.
All three were promoted from within the company.
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