Hargreaves Lansdown chair Deanna Oppenheimer reportedly stepping down, says Sky News
Deanna Oppenheimer, chairman of Hargreaves Lansdown, is reportedly stepping down, says Sky News
- Deanna Oppenheimer has been chairman of Hargreaves for the past five and a half years
- Last October, Hargreaves’ largest shareholder called for her to step down
According to Sky News, Hargreaves Lansdown’s chairman is leaving after severe criticism from one of the investment platform’s founders of her leadership.
Deanna Oppenheimer has chaired the FTSE 100 company for the past five and a half years during a particularly turbulent period for UK financial markets.
Last October, Hargreaves’ co-founder and its largest shareholder, Peter Hargreaves, called for her to resign, accusing her of overseeing a “diabolical” performance at the company.
Leader: Deanna Oppenheimer has chaired Bristol-based Hargreaves Lansdown for the past five and a half years amid a particularly turbulent period for UK financial markets
Since Oppenheimer took over as chairman, Hargreaves has experienced significant growth in assets, customer levels and revenue during her tenure, but the share price has more than halved.
It benefited greatly from a wave of private investors during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, including many young start-ups looking to make some extra money.
Still, trading slowed significantly as lockdown restrictions eased and people began to spend more time away from home and in the office.
The company has also suffered the fallout from the collapse of the Woodford Equity Income Fund, which Hargreaves had heavily promoted before collapsing in 2019, causing significant losses for tens of thousands of investors.
Sky News claimed an announcement about Oppenheimer’s departure was ‘imminent’ while the search for her successor was already underway.
The American-born American is also chairman of Crowne Plaza owner Intercontinental Hotels Group and holds non-executive directorships at media agency Thomson Reuters and technology consultancy Slalom.
She previously held board positions at Tesco, Whitbread and payment processor Worldpay, held senior positions at Barclays and founded CameoWorks, a consultancy for CEOs of technology start-ups.
Chris Hill is already planning to step down as CEO of Hargreaves next month, when he will be replaced by Dan Olley, the former head of data science provider Dunnhumby.
In February 2022, Hill launched a growth strategy with proposals to invest £175 million in its technology platform and launch a new financial advisory service, funded in part by suspending special dividend payments.
But Peter Hargreaves has heavily criticized the plan, calling the proposed service “completely unnecessary” and urging the group instead to “massive round of cost cutting.”
This is Money contacted Hargreaves for comment, but received no response.
Hargreaves Lansdown Shares closed 0.8 percent lower Monday at 832.8 p.