Woodford loses trusted employees as fund suspension continues
Neil Woodford’s investment company has started to lose top employees as a round of redundancies, sparked by the suspension of its flagship fund, begins to bite.
Will Deer, the former head of institutional sales, has been made redundant, the company confirmed today.
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Deer had previously worked with Woodford at Invesco as a UK product director, according to his Linkedin profile. He left the role in 2014 after Woodford founded his own investment company.
His departure follows that of Woodford’s right-hand man, analyst Saku Saha, earlier this week.
Saha quit his role at embattled Woodford Investment Management bringing to an end a decade-long association with the fund manager, which began when he joined Invesco as an analyst in 2009.
The company announced last week that it had made the “reluctant” decision to slash staff numbers following the suspension of Woodford Equity Income fund.
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The redundancies are expected to affect a small number of staff, mainly working in support roles, at the investment firm’s Oxford headquarters.
Woodford’s fund remains indefinitely suspended while the manager works to reduce its exposure to illiquid and unquoted stocks.