Stephen Bird to step down as Abrdn chief executive

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Stephen Bird is stepping down as chief executive of UK asset manager Abrdn after a four-year tenure that included a controversial rebranding of the group.

Abrdn said on Friday that “following the significant strategic repositioning of the company” it was the right time for Bird, a former senior executive at Citigroup, to step aside.

Bird will leave the company at the end of June, when chief financial officer Jason Windsor, who joined the company in October, will step in as interim chief.

Following the “significant strategic repositioning” of the business, the board and Bird had “together agreed that it is the right time” for him to exit, Abrdn said on Friday. It will conduct a formal search for a permanent successor.

Bird’s departure follows a turbulent period for the company, the highest-profile of a number of UK asset managers that have faced pressure to lower fees to compete with bigger rivals.

Since Bird took the reins, Abrdn has twice been ejected from the FTSE 100 and the group’s shares have tumbled by more than 40 per cent over the period. Bird also oversaw a much-ridiculed rebranding of the business and earlier this year cut its workforce by 10 per cent.

Bird attempted to diversify Abrdn by expanding its wealth management business and by selling more investments directly to consumers. In 2021, Abrdn bought Interactive Investor, the UK’s second-largest consumer investment site by assets, for £1.5bn in 2021.

He also restructured other underperforming parts of the business, by selling off Abrdn’s £7.5bn private equity arm and offloading its 50 per cent stake in a joint venture with the bank Virgin Money.

Sir Douglas Flint, Abrdn chair, said that Bird “joined us as the pandemic took hold and, despite the restrictions this imposed, spearheaded a fundamental reshaping of the company, leading from the front to create a company that can be competitive in a fast-evolving sector”.