The chairman of Alliance Trust will stand down at the beginning of January as part of further shake-ups at the investment trust.
Karin Forseke will stand down on 1 January following a host of changes which were announced in October, including the departure of board members and the introduction of a new benchmark.
She said: “We are making good progress implementing the changes announced in October to accelerate our long-term strategy and we expect the new governance structure to be in place in early 2016.
“As these changes are implemented, the chair of the trust’s role will change, and as a result I believe now is the right time for me to move on.”
Gregor Stewart, who has been a non-executive director of Alliance Trust since December 2014, will take on the role of interim chairman.
Alastair Kerr, senior independent director, will also stand down from the board on 1 January and will be replaced by Karl Sternberg, who will lead the search for an external candidate to become chairman of Alliance Trust.
Background
In March, activist investor Elliott Advisors called for three new non-executive directors to be appointed to the Alliance Trust board at the upcoming AGM because of its underperformance.
After more than a month of wrangling, Alliance Trust and Elliott reached a deal on the day before the AGM resulting in two of the three non-executive directors being appointed while Elliott withdrew its motion and agreed not to agitate against the company until after the 2016 AGM at the earliest.
