Standard Life Aberdeen (SLA) has appointed Brooks Macdonald chief executive Caroline Connellan as chief executive officer of personal wealth.
Connellan will report directly to SLA's CEO Stephen Bird as a member of the executive leadership team.
She joins from wealth manager Brooks Macdonald, where she led the business since 2017.
Prior to this, Connellan held senior roles at HSBC, including head of UK premier and wealth, and has consulting experience across the asset management and wealth sector with McKinsey.
Her earlier career included roles with Standard Life and as a private client fund manager with Newton Investment Management.
Bird said: “I am delighted that Caroline will be joining us. She is an outstanding talent with clear and proven ability in building exceptional wealth management businesses, both organically and via acquisition.
“Critically, she has a deep customer-centric mindset and extensive experience in creating compelling and innovative offerings."
He added: “Alongside significant investment in asset management and our adviser support business, our intention is to build a market-leading wealth management proposition to capture value in the growing savings and pre-retirement market.”
Connellan added that she was “delighted” to have the chance to lead the personal wealth business.
She said: “There is an increasing need for individuals to save for the future, particularly for retirement, in a way that works for them - I believe we can play an important role in this, through a market-leading offering, digital innovation and strong customer relationships.
“I'm hugely looking forward to joining the leadership team at SLA and playing my part in leading the change over the coming years.”
SLA’s personal wealth business includes 1825 Financial Planning and its direct-to-customer propositions including digital retirement advice.
The company is currently in the process of rebranding to Abrdn as it moves to refocus the business following the sale of the Standard Life brand.
SLA sold the Standard Life name to FTSE 100 insurance firm Phoenix Group in February as the firms extended their strategic partnership.
The new Abrdn brand comes as the firm re-focusses its business along three strands: global asset management, technology platforms for UK financial advisers and their customers, and UK savings and wealth.
The rolling out of the re-branding will begin this summer and continue through to the end of the year.
amy.austin@ft.com
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