Quilter’s new chair designate Glyn Barker is to step down from the board for personal reasons.

The news comes just over a month after long-serving CEO Paul Feeney announced he would leave the wealth manager and Financial Planner to be replaced by Steven Levin, former head of Quilter’s Affluent segment.

In May Quilter announced that it had appointed former PwC executive Glyn Barker as chairman.

Mr Barker joined the board as a non-executive director and member of the remuneration committee and corporate governance and nominations committee from 1 June.

He replaced Glyn Jones who stepped down ‘to pursue other interests’.

Ruth Markland, interim chair, will now continue to chair the company rather than handing over to Mr Barker as planned. Tim Breedon will be the senior independent director.

As chair of Quilter plc, Ms Markland will receive a fee of £350,000 per annum.  She will commit at least two to three days per week to Quilter during her appointment as chair. As senior independent director, Tim Breedon will receive an additional fee of £20,000 per annum.

Ms Markland is a solicitor and was previously managing partner of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Asia business. She has substantial City experience on the boards of Standard Chartered and Sage Group. She was an independent non-executive director of Deloitte LLP for five years until 2020 and was appointed interim chair of the Quilter board on 12 May. 

Ms Markland said: "While we are disappointed by Glyn's decision, we very much understand his personal reasons for making it. We thank Glyn for his contribution to the board over the last several months and he leaves with our very best wishes.

“I am looking forward to continuing as chair of Quilter and thank my board colleagues for their support and confidence. I have tremendous faith in Quilter and our management team, led by Steven and Mark, and look forward to delivering on our potential and achieving good outcomes for all stakeholders in the coming years."

Mr Breedon said: "I share Ruth's disappointment at Glyn's decision but similarly understand his reasons and wish him the very best.

“On behalf of the board, I would like to extend our thanks to Ruth for agreeing to continue her chairmanship of Quilter. She has provided excellent leadership since becoming chair after our last AGM and has made an invaluable contribution to the board and broader company since our listing in June 2018."

Quilter is one of the UK’s biggest wealth managers and platforms and oversees £96.9 billion in customer investments as at 30 September. The business has two segments: Affluent and High Net Worth. Affluent includes the Financial Planning businesses, Quilter Financial Planning, the Quilter Investment Platform and Quilter Investors, the multi-asset investment solutions business. High Net Worth includes the discretionary fund management business, Quilter Cheviot, together with Quilter Private Client Advisers.