Gordon Wilson has been appointed chair of adviser platform Nucleus, to replace outgoing chair Mark Dearsley.

He was previously chair of platform Interactive Investor which was sold to Abrdn for £1.49bn earlier this year.

He also chairs Ambassador Cruise Line and Virgin Experience Days and was formerly president of travel commerce platform Travelport as well as a non-executive director at bookmaker William Hill, until its sale to Caesars Entertainment in 2021.

Richard Rowney, CEO of Nucleus, said: “It’s a pleasure to welcome Gordon to the board. His considerable experience and knowledge will be of great advantage to us, as we continue to grow and scale our business. I also thank our outgoing chair Mark Dearsley for his tremendous support, counsel, and expertise over many years, helping steer the business from the IFG ownership days through to the position we’re in today.”

Mr Wilson said: “I’m delighted to be taking up the role of chair at a pivotal time for Nucleus as we grow the business and develop a new retirement platform on new technology. It has a unique opportunity to become one of the scale leaders in the sector, while delivering against the priorities of advisers through investment in the proposition, pricing, and service.”

His appointment is subject to regulatory approval.

Nucleus operates from offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London and Salisbury and administers approximately £46bn of customer assets across SIPPS, ISAs, general investment accounts and other products, for more than 5,000 financial advisers.

Private equity investment firm HPS Investment Partners bought a majority stake in the platform for an undisclosed sum in March, less than a year after Nucleus was sold to Epiris-owned rival platform James Hay for £145m in an all-cash deal.

• Rival platform Novia has appointed Amira Norris FPFS, a Chartered Financial Planner, as its new head of sales. She joins from Nucleus and has 20 years of experience in Financial Planning. 

• Pareto Financial Planning has appointed Phil Young, formerly chair of the Sense network, as a non-executive director.