Columbia Threadneedle Investments head of equities Leigh Harrison will retire from the City on 30 June after spending a decade of his 32-year career at the asset management house. 
Harrison joined the firm in 2006 to lead its UK equities team and was made head of equities, Europe in 2014 to oversee the group’s UK and European equity teams.
The manager said: “I have had a fantastic 10 years at Columbia Threadneedle and am proud of all of the things we have achieved over that time. In particular we now have one of the strongest income franchises in the City, we have delivered excellent performance for our clients and raised assets in difficult markets.”
“I feel the time is now right for me move on and do some of the things I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I leave the team in great shape and I am confident they will continue to deliver excellent performance for clients.”
FE Analytics shows that Harrison has made his investors a 100.38 per cent total return over the past 10 years, outperforming the 49.15 per cent made by his peer group composite by a wide margin.
Performance of Harrison vs peer group composite over 10yrs
Source: FE Analytics
Furthermore, the manager’s 34.93 per cent maximum drawdown is much lower than the peer group composite’s 42 per cent, while his maximum gain is 6 percentage points higher at 34.93 per cent.
Harrison is listed as co-manager on five funds but has been gradually stepping back from day-to-day management responsibilities. In October last year, for example, he handed lead management responsibilities on the Threadneedle UK Equity Income fund to Richard Colwell, who had been co-manager.
Colwell now will be promoted to Columbia Threadneedle Investments’ head of UK equities while head of global equities William Davies will take the newly created position of head of equities, EMEA - assuming overall reporting responsibility for the UK and European equity teams as well as the EMEA-based US, Asia, emerging market and global equity teams.
Mark Burgess, chief investment officer, EMEA at Columbia Threadneedle, said: “On behalf of Columbia Threadneedle I would like to recognise Leigh’s truly outstanding investment career. For more than 30 years he has been managing other people’s money with consummate skill, care and professionalism, and has been an example to many colleagues throughout his career. He has built a market-leading UK equities team with a proven, repeatable investment process and approach.”
“While we are sad to see Leigh go, his retirement has been in the planning for some time and he leaves in place a strong team leader in Richard with whom he has worked for the past six years. The strong legacy Leigh leaves behind is a real credit to him. I’d like to thank Leigh for the substantial contribution he has made over 10 years to our clients, our people and our business. We wish him a long and happy retirement.”
