Schroders has formed a new group executive committee to accelerate its growth strategy, which includes one new appointment.
The announcement follows Richard Oldfield’s appointment earlier this year as its new global chief executive, following the departure of Peter Harrison after he spent eight years at Schroders. Oldfield commenced in the CEO role last week, on 8 November 2024.
Oldfield was previously appointed as a director and chief financial officer at Schroders in October 2023, having also worked as a global markets leader at PwC where he spent over 20 years including on its UK executive board.
The new group executive committee will focus on executing the firm’s business strategy and accelerating the transition to growth, Schroders stated.
It consists of eight existing internal executives alongside the appointment of Ed Houghton, who will formally commence at Schroders as group head of strategy and investor engagement in mid-January 2025.
Houghton joins from Legal & General (L&G) where he was the group strategy and investor relations director. He was previously the managing director and senior research analyst at Bernstein for eight years, and also worked at Aviva and Accenture.
The new executive team consists of:
- Richard Oldfield, group chief executive
- Meagen Burnett, chief financial officer
- Mary-Anne Daly, CEO for wealth management
- Johanna Kyrklund, group chief investment officer and CEO for public markets (equities, fixed income, multi asset and solutions)
- Georg Wunderlin, CEO for Schroders Capital
- Ed Houghton, group head of strategy and investor engagement
- Karine Szenberg, global head of client group
- Sonia Jenkins, chief people officer
- Neil Tomlinson, group general counsel
Commenting on the announcement, Oldfield said: “My objective from here, together with the [group executive committee], is to proceed at pace and with clear accountability to move the business forward.
“We have already made a start on identifying our key priorities. With that in mind, I am very excited that Ed will be joining us next year to drive our strategy and investor engagement; he brings exceptional experience and underlines how we are committed to having exceptional talent at the firm.”
The group CEO added that the new team will be looking for opportunities to drive further growth in the business under his leadership. He remarked: “Once we have established this, you can expect us to act decisively to deliver for clients, scale profitably and grow at pace.”
In September, Schroders also appointed two executives to its global leadership team. This saw chief investment officer Johanna Kyrklund join the board and Meagan Burnett replace Oldfield as chief financial officer, after she previously held the role of group chief operating officer.
