Helena Morrissey has stepped down as chief executive of Newton Investment Management after 15 years and becomes the non-executive chair of the firm’s board of directors. The non-executive chair role is newly created.
Morrissey – a vocal campaigner for more women on company boards and, more recently, just as vocal in her support for Britain to leave the EU – is to be replaced by Hanneke Smits, formerly chief investment officer at private equity firm Adams Street Partners.
Morrissey joined Newton in 1994 and was appointed CEO in 2001 at the age of 35, replacing founders Stewart Newton and Charles Richardson after the firm was purchased by US custody bank BNY Mellon.
As well as her role at Newton, she sits on the board of the UK Investment Association (IA) and on an IA working group investigating company pay. Morrissey is also founder of the 30% Club, a cross-business initiative aimed at achieving 30% women on UK corporate boards.
Newton IM manages assets of around £47 billion pounds (€54.3 billion), as of March 31, 2016.
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