Standard Life Aberdeen today announced chief executive Keith Skeoch is stepping down after five years. Skeoch will be replaced by former CEO of global consumer banking at Citigroup.
Skeoch’s departure was announced just two months after Martin Gilbert left the company, having served with Skeoch as co-chief executive for several years after the merger of his Aberdeen Asset Management with Skeoch’s Standard Life in 2017.
He will join on a salary of £875,000 plus a bonus of up to 250% of that and a long term incentive scheme potential award of 350% of salary for 2020 to 2022.
Skeoch’s tenure
Skeoch was one of the architects of the £11bn merger of Standard Life Investments and Aberdeen Asset Management. He had served as co-chief executive with Gilbert after the merger in 2017, but the use of two bosses was unpopular among shareholders.
With integration well progressed and having built significant balance sheet strength, this appointment launches the next phase of evolution aimed at developing and expanding the revenue opportunities available to SLA and marks the culmination of a wide-ranging succession planning exercise.
Standard Life Aberdeen
Last month the fund manager said the pandemic had only a modest impact on business and estimated total assets at nearly £500bn at the end of April.
Transition
Bird will take over as 1 July, the fund manager said. He spent 21 years with Citigroup most recently serving as head of global consumer banking. Prior to that he served as chief executive for Citigroup’s Asia Pacific business across 17 markets in the region.
The transition from Keith Skeoch was always going to be a challenge to deliver, given the incredible scale and range of his contributions to the success of the company over many years. I am however extremely pleased to say we have found a truly worthy successor.”
Standard Life Aberdeen chairman Sir Douglas Flint
