London-listed investment group Old Mutual’s longstanding legal chief and company secretary, Martin Murray (pictured), is to retire in June, and is expected to be replaced by his deputy Colin Campbell.
Murray currently serves as secretary to the board and its committees and is chief in-house lawyer. During his tenure, Murray has served as a member of the group audit committee, a non-executive director position that involves reviewing the company’s financial health.
He joined the company, which has £327.9bn worth of assets under management, in 1999 and has a wide reaching career in-house. Having trained at Clifford Chance during the 80s, Murray joined then heavyweight trading company S&W Berisford for three years until 1986 before moving to materials company Hanson for more than a decade. He then took the role of general counsel and company secretary at British power generator and distributor The Energy Group in 1997 after its demerger from Hanson for two years before his appointment at Old Mutual.
Old Mutual’s primary legal adviser is Slaughter and May, and previous mandates included advising the FTSE-100 company on its stock exchange listing and on the sale of its Nordic business (other than Finland) to Skandia Liv for £2.1bn.
A company spokesperson would not confirm Murray’s successor however Legal Business understands he is preparing to hand over the reins to Campbell.
The spokesperson said: ‘Martin has indicated that he wishes to retire during this year and we are discussing with him the succession process including internal candidates for the role.’
Other high profile in-house moves of late included the appointment of former Barclays and Herbert Smith veteran Michael Shaw to the role of general counsel at The Royal Bank of Scotland, where he will succeed John Collins who is to depart for Santander UK.
sarah.downey@legalease.co.uk
