British financial services company Legal & General Group has appointed a new CEO for its £984.8 billion ($1.29 trillion USD) investment management division.
Michelle Scrimgeour, a regional CEO at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, has been tapped as the next chief executive of Legal & General Investment Management, the firm announced Monday. She will take over from outgoing LGIM chief Mark Zinkula, who previously announced he would retire in August 2019.
Scrimgeour will work closely with Zinkula until his exit later this year, the firm said in the announcement.
At Columbia Threadneedle, Scrimgeour oversaw the Europe, Middle East, and Africa business. Prior to joining the firm as the EMEA chief executive in April 2017, she was the chief risk officer at M&G Investments, a London-based manager owned by Prudential.
Scrimgeour joined M&G in June 2012 from BlackRock, where she was a member of the executive committee which led the firm’s EMEA business. She had become chief operating officer of international fixed income at BlackRock in 2006 after the firm’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch Investment Management, where she was global head of fixed income product.
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“I am delighted Michelle is joining us to lead the next phase of LGIM’s growth both with our existing U.K. clients and internationally,” Legal & General CEO Nigel Wilson said in a statement. “Her successes at Columbia Threadneedle, M&G, and BlackRock clearly demonstrate that she combines a capacity for managing and growing a substantial international asset management business with a strong focus on creating sustainable and scalable operations.”
Legal & General Investment Management, which placed fourth on II’s 2017 ranking of Europe’s largest asset managers, is the biggest manager of U.K. pension assets, according to the firm. As of June 2018, LGIM ran £229 billion ($300 billion) in international assets, representing about 23 percent of its total client capital.
