Abrdn boss Stephen Bird quits asset manager

Abrdn’s boss has quit after four challenging years at the helm, having overseen a controversial rebrand, the ‘simplification’ of the asset manager and disappointing results.

Stephen Bird has stepped down as the investment group’s chief executive, but will remain at the company until the end of June to enable a smooth handover.

Jason Windsor, Abrdn’s chief financial officer, will become CEO on an interim basis while the asset manager searches for a full-time successor.

Bird took over the Edinburgh-based group at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in July 2020 following a 21-year spell at banking giant Citigroup, including as head of its global consumer banking business.

He succeeded Keith Skeoch, who helped form the company in 2017 via the £11billion mega-merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management.

The Scottish banker sought to revive the firm’s fortunes by slashing costs – including hundreds of job losses – and expanding its wealth management and retail investment operations.

In May 2022, Abrdn spent £1.5billion to buy Interactive Investor, Britain’s second-largest online trading platform for private investors.

However, Abrdn experienced a significant outflow of funds as it faced competition from competitors to lower fees, and investors poured their money into cash and less risky investments amid a challenging economic backdrop.

Between 2021 and 2023, the company’s assets under management shrank by about £47billion to £494.9billion, and it fell out of the FTSE 100 Index twice.

The business also became the subject of some derision after changing its name from Standard Life Aberdeen to Abrdn.

A poll by comparison website Investing Reviews in September 2021 described the rebranding decision as an ‘act of corporate insanity’.

Last month, Abrdn’s investment chief accused the media of ‘corporate bullying’ as a result of the group dropping the vowels from its new name.

Since switching to a different name, Abrdn shares have plummeted by about 44 per cent as it continued to suffer an investor exodus and posted two successive annual losses, including a £612million pre-tax loss in 2022.

Abrdn shares were 0.35 per cent higher at 156.55p on late Friday afternoon.

Sir Douglas Flint, Abrdn’s chairman, said Bird ‘spearheaded a fundamental reshaping of the company, leading from the front to create a company that can be competitive in a fast-evolving sector’.

He added: ‘Adapting the inherited business model to be capable of generating sustainable and profitable growth required strategic vision, intense hard work and the courage to make tough but necessary decisions.’

Bird told investors: ‘I am immensely proud of the work we have done together to simplify abrdn and position the company for sustainable growth.

‘Together with a refreshed leadership team and an incredibly committed group of colleagues at all levels, we have refocused our global Investments business as a specialist asset manager.’