Abrdn Plc appointed Aviva Plc veteran Jason Windsor as its new chief financial officer following the departure of Stephanie Bruce earlier this year.

Windsor, 50, is expected to join abrdn by the end of October, the Edinburgh-based money manager said in a statement on Thursday. Windsor was at Aviva for over a decade until mid-2022 and more recently served as CFO of housing developer Persimmon Plc.

The £500 billion asset manager has been going through a period of transformation under Chief Executive Officer Stephen Bird, who has restructured different parts of the business since his appointment in 2020. Other senior exits in recent months include the former asset management chief for the US, Europe and the Middle East, Chris Demetriou, and head of real estate Neil Slater.

Fund Merger

Abrdn’s once-mighty Global Absolute Return Strategies fund, or GARS, will stop existing as a stand-alone vehicle in one of the latest moves under Bird’s revamp. The former flagship strategy will be merged into the £600 million diversified income fund, abrdn said by email.

GARS reached a peak of £27 billion in 2016 but has since lost more than 90% of its assets, slumping to around £1.4 billion, according to Abrdn.

Sky News reported the closure of the GARS fund earlier on Thursday.