River and Mercantile Group PLC (The Group) has appointed current deputy James Barham as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
He will start his new role at the start of next month, in line with The Group’s established succession plan. Mr Barham will take over from Mike Faulkner, who founded P-Solve (now River and Mercantile Solutions) in 2001 and served as its chief executive officer until the merger with The Group in 2014, when he became CEO. He will remain on the Board as an Executive Director and become the Group’s Head of Macro Strategies and Innovation. He has decided to focus on the management and development of the Group’s innovative range of macro strategies.
Following service in the British Army with the Royal Welch Fusiliers Mr Barham joined Shandwick Consultants in 1989. He later joined James Capel in 1991 and in 1995 was part of the team that founded and successfully floated Liontrust Asset Management PLC, where he established and managed the institutional business. He then joined Intermediate Capital Group in 2004 as Sales and Marketing Director, before leaving to found River and Mercantile Asset Management LLP in 2006.
Commenting on the appointment of a new CEO, Mr Faulkner said: “The Group has made significant progress over the last five years in the development of its service offerings. Within this, I believe strongly that the opportunities our macro strategies represent for our business to grow will require me to be solely focused on developing and managing these along with new investment strategies to meet our clients’ investment needs. James and I have worked together for many years growing the business to the successful franchise it is today, and I know he is best placed to take on the role of Group CEO from me. We will continue to work closely together in growing the business as we have always done.”
River and Mercantile Group Chairman, Jonathan Dawson, added: “I am delighted that James has accepted the position as CEO which will provide Mike the time to focus on driving forward our investment thinking for the benefit of our clients and to support the future growth of River and Mercantile. This appointment reflects a continuation of the business logic that both Mike and James shared leading to the original formation of the Group in 2014.”
The Group is an investment solutions business with over £36bn of assets under management.
