Stewart quits as Cenkos CEO
ANDY Stewart has stepped down as chief executive of Cenkos, the City brokerage he founded four years ago.
Stewart has been appointed as executive deputy chairman and has handed over the reins to former group finance director Simon Melling, the firm said in a statement yesterday.
But Stewart was keen to quash speculation he will scale back his commitment to the firm, notably to spend more time with his elder son, Paul, who broke his back in a snowboarding accident last December.
“The day-to-day running of the business will now be down to Simon, enabling me to look at the long-term future of the business,” he said.
“I want to concentrate on the bigger picture, as there are a lot of good opportunities around in this market,” he added.
“But I’m certainly not planning on leaving the firm; I’ll continue alongside Simon for as long as I can and they’ll have to take me out in the proverbial box.”
Stewart has worked with Melling for over two decades and first brought him in as finance director at Cenkos to oversee the company’s flotation on the Aim market in 2006.
Melling previously worked as director of group financial services at Singer and Friedlander and subsequently as chief operating officer of the private client division at Collins Stewart, another City broker co-founded by Stewart.