Aegon Asset Management has named Iain McGowan as partnership director, a newly created post focused on the firm’s most important UK institutional relationships. McGowan, who joins after six years as director of investments at Scottish Widows, will be based in Edinburgh and report to Adrian Hull, head of the UK client group at Aegon AM.
The creation of the role signals that the asset manager wants closer and deeper ties with a group of key UK-based partners. McGowan’s brief is to build on those relationships and strengthen them over time, giving those institutions a senior, dedicated point of contact in the Scottish capital. The position did not exist at the firm before his appointment, and it sits within the UK client group run by Hull.
He arrives with more than 30 years in the industry, most of it at Scottish Widows, which he joined in 1999. As director of investments he oversaw investments on behalf of the company’s customers and handled its dealings with major asset management partners. In that job he led several large investment transformation programmes, sat on the Scottish Widows independent governance committee and chaired an overseas fund board.
Before reaching the top investment job, McGowan held a series of senior roles at Scottish Widows, including head of fund development and analysis, head of mutual funds, savings and investments, and head of retirement income and planning. A qualified actuary, he started out in product ownership before moving across into investments, so his career at the insurer covered product design, fund management oversight and retirement planning before he took charge of its investment function. Hull welcomed the appointment, saying McGowan “brings a wealth of experience” to the business and that the team was thrilled to have him on board.
Hull added that McGowan’s understanding of investment propositions and of the wider asset management industry would help Aegon AM open up its range of strategies to all of its clients. The hire brings in a senior figure who spent years managing relationships with asset management partners on behalf of a major insurer, experience that matches the remit of his new job closely. His actuarial training and background in product ownership add a technical grounding to the role. McGowan will lead that effort from Edinburgh, where both he and his new reporting line are based.
