Former Newton Investment Management chief executive Helena Morrissey is to joined Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) as head of personal investing.
Morrissey (pictured) will start her role on 1 May, subject to regulatory approval, reporting to chief executive Mark Zinkula, and will also join LGIM's board.
Her new role will involve leading the firm's D2C business and building LGIM's direct ties with investors, particularly through mobile and robo-advice.
Morrissey, who left Newton last year after 15 years as chief executive, is a keen supporter of gender diversity and set up The 30% Club, which campaigns to raise female represetation in UK boardrooms to 30%.
She also chairs the board of the Investment Association, although she will be stepping down from this role in the summer.
She said: "I wanted a role where I could make a real difference to how the industry engages with its customers. LGIM has the potential to be not just a market leader in this space but to develop a genuinely different approach.
"We are looking forward to building a savings business with strong and direct connections with our customers, including those who have never really thought about investing before or find existing offerings off-putting.
"There is no doubt the UK direct savings market is highly competitive and moving very quickly: we are looking to get to the point where we are all using technology to access funds in the same way that we use Amazon to access books. Our focus will be on building a service, not a sales process."
Zinkula commented: "We are very excited Helena is joining us. She is highly respected and one of the most progressive thinkers in the industry. She is passionate about understanding and meeting the needs of investors, and is the right person to lead our direct-to-consumer business."
