Global asset manager Brown Advisory hires ex-Chatham House chief to board
Global asset manager Brown Advisory, which oversees around $135bn in client assets, has appointed ex-Chatham House CEO Robin Niblett, Sian Westerman and Jasmine Whitbread to its International Advisory Board.
Westerman will remain a Senior Advisor at Rothschild & Co., while Whitbread currently chairs Travis Perkins plc, a FTSE-250 builders’ merchant and home improvement retailer.
The three new hires join an International Advisory Board that includes Michael D. Hankin, Brown Advisory’s President and CEO, and Logie Fitzwilliams, the firm’s Head of International Business and Global Head of Sales.
Founded in 1993 out of Baltimore, Maryland, Brown Advisory’s International Business has grown substantially since 2006 under Fitzwilliams’ leadership, now managing around $20bn on behalf of institutional, private and charity clients out of its London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Singapore offices.
Sir Niblett was CEO of Chatham House, officially known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, for 15 years. The institute tripled in size during his tenure, as it expanded its coverage of international political developments. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Geopolitics and served as its chair between 2020 and 2022.
Westerman has spent a considerable amount of her career at Rothschild & Co., primarily as an investment banker advising corporates and private equity on mergers, acquisitions and disposals. She was a trustee of the Royal Academy of Arts for a ten-year term ending in September 2023, but continues to serve on its corporate advisory board. Westerman is also a trustee of the Barbican Centre Trust.
In addition to chairing Travis Perkins plc, Whitbread currently chairs the Governance and Sustainability Committee of Richemont, the Switzerland-based luxury goods group. She brings over 20 years’ experience of managing sustainability-related issues to Brown Advisory, including her time as CEO of Save the Children and London First, now known as BusinessLDN. She was also a non-executive director of BT plc.
Fitzwilliams says that the trio will provide “invaluable strategic thinking and counsel” to the firm’s growing international business, which currently offers 18 funds across public, private and fixed income vehicles to its global clientele.
Simon de Zoete, who’s City career spans over 35 years including time as Deputy Chairman of Credit Suisse’s European operations, will be stepping down from the firm’s International Advisory Board after joining in 2015, the year of its inception.