(Bloomberg) -- Richard Buxton stepped down as chief executive officer of Merian Global Investors, to be replaced by a Legal & General Group Plc veteran as the company bolsters its management team.
The feted stock-picker will be replaced by Mark Gregory, the former finance chief of L&G, who joined Merian's board in October as a non-executive director. Buxton will stay on as head of U.K. equities and will continue to manage the flagship Merian U.K. Alpha Fund, the company said on Tuesday.
Merian Global Investors was launched by Buxton last June as part of a management buyout of Old Mutual Global Investors. The firm had assets under management of 31.6 billion pounds ($40 billion) as of Oct. 31.
The announcement comes as money managers seek to bolster their management teams in the face of tougher competition from ETFs and other passive forms of investing. Michael Hintze left his role as CEO of CQS U.K. LLP but remains senior investment officer. Dan Och, founder of Och-Ziff Capital Management Group LLC, named Robert Shafir to succeed him as CEO last year to guide his hedge-fund firm through turbulent times.
Buxton developed his reputation as a stock-picker at Schroders Plc before leaving in 2013.
--With assistance from Nishant Kumar.
To contact the reporter on this story: Lucca de Paoli in London at gdepaoli1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sree Vidya Bhaktavatsalam at sbhaktavatsa@bloomberg.net, Paul Armstrong, Marion Dakers
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