Jupiter replaces Bonham Carter with new chief
JUPITER Fund Management’s veteran chief executive Edward Bonham Carter yesterday announced his resignation as head of the firm, amid a renewed push for growth by the company into overseas markets.
Bonham Carter, a fund manager by background, will stand down in March and be replaced by the firm’s distribution and strategy director Maarten Slendebroek.
Slendebroek, who was head of international retail business for fund giant BlackRock before joining Jupiter in September 2012, is currently an executive director on the Jupiter board. Bonham Carter will become vice-chairman, a new full-time role focusing on the investment side of the company.
“It has been a privilege to lead Jupiter during the past 14 years,” Bonham Carter said in a statement. “The company is well positioned for growth and it is the right time for me to hand over the reins.”
The move highlights Jupiter’s steady shift from a boutique fund manager to a bigger mid-market player, where distribution channels play an increasingly important role alongside managing money.
Slendebroek, who is holds dual Swedish and Dutch nationality, has a vast array of contacts in key continental markets, where Jupiter hopes to start selling funds on a larger scale.
The change in leadership comes as funds face increasing regulatory scrutiny, with watchdogs currently pushing to increase transparency around the fees that managers charge to clients and brokers.
Bonham Carter’s move follows the impending departure of one of his key lieutenants, head of UK equities Anthony Nutt, who retires next year.
One of its top fund managers, Philip Matthews, was appointed to manage Richard Buxton’s former fund at Schroders in April.
Jupiter shares rose slightly in trading yesterday, closing up 0.2 per cent.
PROFILE: EDWARD BONHAM CARTER
EDWARD Bonham Carter’s introduction to the top job at Jupiter Fund Management was forged in the fiery aftermath of legendary fund manager John Duffield’s controversial reign at the firm. Since then, he has skillfully grown the business into a FTSE 250 listed mid-market player. He led a management buyout of the business in 2007 backed by US private equity firm TA Associates. He went on to float the company in 2010 and remains a significant shareholder in the firm with about three per cent. After he leaves the top job next year, Bonham Carter moves to become vice-chairman, a full time role taking up four days a week – and one likely to draw more fully on his fund management expertise. He is also a non-executive director of Land Securities and will use the other weekday to fulfil his duties there. Bonham Carter, who was made boss in 2000 after Duffield left, had joined the firm six years earlier as a fund manager from Electra Investment Trust. He learned the trade at Schroders, having joined the industry in 1982 after an economics degree at the University of Manchester. He was educated at Harrow. Away from the corporate world, he is best known as the brother of Hollywood actress Helena Bonham Carter. He also comes from a family of well-known figures. His great grandfather was Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith while his uncle Mark Bonham Carter was formerly a governor of the BBC. He went into finance following in the footsteps of his father, Raymond, who was head of banking at SG Warburg.