Billionaire Spencer Hires Schroders Veteran to Manage His Wealth

Mint

11 hours ago

(Bloomberg) -- UK billionaire Michael Spencer has hired a Schroders Plc veteran to lead his family office, expanding the investing capabilities of the firm managing one of Britain's biggest fortunes.
Simon Brazier, 50, who previously worked at Schroders for more than a decade, becomes chief executive officer from Aug. 18 of the Nex Group founder's personal investment firm, known as IPGL, according to a statement.
The British native, a longtime fund manager, replaces Seth Johnson, a 57 year-old former Nex executive who stepped into the CEO role at IPGL after a predecessor departed within six months of joining in 2023 due to personal reasons. Brazier, Johnson and Spencer will initially work together in a transition period at IPGL, which disclosed net assets of £995.2 million ($1.4 billion) in its latest annual accounts and has stakes in companies including wine-maker Chapel Down Group Plc and cybersecurity firm Glasswall.
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The leadership shakeup shows how Spencer is hiring outside the finance empire he built over the past four decades to take charge of a firm that ranks among London's biggest family offices, controlling stakes in more than a dozen companies worldwide.
IPGL's leaders have often worked before with Spencer, who made his fortune through ICAP Plc — NEX's predecessor company — and turned it into the world's biggest broker of deals between banks.
Brazier is 'a natural leader with deep investment insight, sound judgement, and a strong ethical compass,' Spencer, 70, said. 'He brings a long-term view and a proven ability to lead teams and generate value.'
The family office's finance chief, Karina Curtis, previously worked at ICAP, where former CEO Samantha Wren similarly spent almost a decade of her career in senior roles. Piers Davison, a former JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. banker who advised on some of Spencer's biggest transactions in the past, also became a non-executive director of IPGL in late 2024. Outgoing CEO Johnson has worked with the UK billionaire for more than three decades.
Spencer, a former Conservative Party treasurer, sold Nex to CME Group Inc. in 2018 in a deal that valued the UK firm at £3.9 billion.
Brazier, a University of Durham Economics and French graduate, started working at Schroders in the late 1990s and later helped lead the firm's UK equity funds, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He moved to Threadneedle Investments in 2009, where he served as head of UK equities and oversaw a roughly £2 billion fund before Investec Plc's asset-management arm at the time recruited him for a similar role about a decade ago, his most recent money-management position.
--With assistance from Andrea Felsted.
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