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Killik investment chief Paul Kavanagh announces departure
City stockbroker and wealth manager Killik announced a major departure this morning as partner Paul Kavanagh is set to leave at the end of this year with two colleagues to set up his own company.
Kavanagh, chief investment officer at Killik and chairman of Killik & Co's capital division, will leave the company on 31 December 2014, along with Kareem colleagues Khouri and John Prior, with the three having a combined 55 years experience at the firm.
Killik said the departures, reached by mutual agreement, followed from a decision taken as part of a strategic review to scale back the firm's futures business, with Kavanagh and his colleagues, who had been responsible for the derivatives division, looking to launch their new business in this area.
Paul Kavanagh said: “Making the decision to start a new venture is never taken lightly but it is particularly difficult in this instance. Paul Killik has been a truly inspirational leader, loyal friend and mentor for over 20 years. It has been an enormous privilege for Kareem, John & me to work alongside Paul and the rest of the Partnership and we will always be proud to have played a part in its success.”
Paul Killik, founder and senior partner of Killik, added: “The departure of Paul, Kareem & John is a great sadness to me at a personal level. Upon behalf of all my partners, I would like to say a very sincere thank you and to wish them the very best of good fortune with their new enterprise, and I hope that their new business joins the roster of other successful firms that have been born out of the deep pool of Killik & Co talent and entrepreneurialism.”
Kavanagh joined Killik in 1993, and in recent years at Killik has also provided a weekly podcast on his view of the state of the market and stock recommendations. He is also a regular tweeter at @KavanaghKillik, with over 6,000 tweets and more than 2,500 followers.
Last year Killik saw it net assets grow by over £400m, and expects to achiever a similar result this year, taking total assets under management to around £4bn.