Cornelian investment restructure leads to Robertson departure

Colin Robertson has left Cornelian Asset Managers, after the Edinburgh-based wealth manager’s decision to restructure its investment management team.

Robertson was formerly an investment manager and associate director at Cornelian and had worked at the firm since March 2003, joining from Aberdeen Asset Management. He also worked for Singer & Friedlander and Tilney.

John Jackson, chief operating officer at Cornelian, confirmed Robertson’s departure and said he had decided to pursue opportunities elsewhere, after the firm decided to reorganise. This has involved the creation of three roles in which managers will focus solely on research, while the rest of the team will focus predominantly on servicing clients.

Alongside the three dedicated investment specialists, Cornelian now has eight client-facing managers.

He explained: ‘As we have taken on more business, people who have been doing both private client work and investment work have become increasingly busy and come under more pressure.

'We were faced with the question, do we take on more people in dual roles or do we have people who are just dedicated to investment research? The second path was the one we decided to take.’

He added: ‘As the mix of activities within the roles has changed and we have introduced new roles, everyone was given the opportunity to apply for the new roles but Colin Robertson decided not to apply and has taken opportunities elsewhere.

Jackson said the number of roles across the company remains the same, but there is just a different content to what they had before. 'We have done this to position the business for the future.' he expalined.

Jackson stressed that Cornelian’s investment process, headed by Marcus Brooks, will remain unchanged.