Schroders, the UK’s largest standalone fund manager, has announced a new group executive committee (ExCo) as Richard Oldfield officially becomes group CEO, succeeding Peter Harrison.

Eight of the ExCo roles have been filled by existing internal executives.

Joining the firm and the ExCo, as Group Head of Strategy and Investor Engagement, will be Ed Houghton.

Houghton will formally join Schroders in mid-January 2025, having most recently been group strategy and investor relations director at Legal & General (L&G).

The newly-formed Schroders ExCo consists of CEO Oldfield; CFO Meagen Burnett; Wealth Management CEO Mary-Anne Daly; Johanna Kyrklund, Group Chief Investment Officer and CEO for Public Markets; 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; and Neil Tomlinson, Group General Counsel.

Schroders manages assets of around £774 billion and has over 6,000 employees across 38 locations. The Schroder family continues to be a significant shareholder, holding 44% of the firm’s issued share capital.

Oldfield said: “My objective from here, together with the ExCo, 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.

“As well as spending time with my new team, I’m also looking forward to meeting clients, shareholders and other market participants in the coming weeks.

“One of the first things I will be asking the new ExCo to build with even more rigour is a very clear understanding of where within our business we can accelerate our transition to growth.

“Once we have established this, you can expect us to act decisively to deliver for clients, scale profitably and grow at pace.”

Last week, Schroders announced that Phil Middleton has been appointed as Head of UK with effect from January 1, 2025, and Tom Darnowski has been promoted to CEO Americas.