Aberdeen Standard Investments chairman Martin Gilbert steps down

Martin Gilbert is to leave Standard Life Aberdeen after nearly four decades with the business.

The vice chairman of the group and chairman of Aberdeen’s investment arm said he would step down in September next year.

Mr Gilbert co-founded Aberdeen Asset Management in the 1980s and led it into a merger with Standard Life in 2017.

He said: “It has been an incredible journey.”

Mr Gilbert added: “It’s almost unimaginable from the earliest days when we were just three people in one office in Aberdeen with £50m under management to today’s total in excess of £500bn.”

Since the merger with Standard Life, the company has struggled to win round shareholders.

The merger came as asset management firms were being squeezed and fees were being reduced with increased competition.

Before stepping down, Mr Gilbert said he would try to win new business and “realise the potential from our global network and capabilities”.

‘Tireless effort’

Standard Life Aberdeen chairman Sir Douglas Flint said: “It is impossible to overstate Martin’s achievement in building Aberdeen Asset Management into a truly global and widely respected investment firm.

“His ability to attract talent to deliver that success and his unrelenting commitment to the firm’s clients leave a legacy of which he should be immensely proud and which serves as a solid foundation for our future success.

“His foresight to see the opportunities that led to the combination that created Standard Life Aberdeen and his tireless efforts to realise these opportunities post-merger are hugely valued by all his colleagues who now take up the responsibility to deliver on them.”

The businessman will continue working, having already been lined up as fintech start-up Revolut’s new chairman.

The challenger banking service appointed Mr Gilbert in an attempt to improve corporate governance and prepare the business for any possible listing or future fundraising.