EUROPE - Lindsay Tomlinson has relinquished day-to-day management responsibility at Barclays Global Investors' European business to Andrew Skirton.

Tomlinson, 51, is to stand down from his role as chief executive of BGI Europe and take the title of vice chairman, BGI Europe.

"The new role will allow him to focus full time on representing BGI's interests in the industry and to work more closely with some of BGI's clients," BGI said. He will remain a member of the firm's executive committee.

Andrew Skirton, 40, will assume the European CEO role, in addition to his current global co-CEO position. Blake Grossman is the other global CEO, while Patty Dunn is the firm's US vice chairman.

BGI is the largest manager of European pension fund assets and had a total of 125 billion pounds (179.5 billion euros) in assets under management in Europe at the end of June.

Skirton said: "I am very pleased that Lindsay is taking on this new role. In an industry that is developing fast, it will allow BGI and its clients to fully benefit from his great wealth of industry expertise and knowledge."

Tomlinson already chairs the Investment Management Association, the Institutional Shareholders Committee and the policy group of index provider FTSE.