UK – Tony Watson, outgoing chief executive at Hermes Pensions Management, is to join the £1.4bn (€2bn) Witan Investment Trust as a non-executive director.

Witan said Watson, 60, would take the role from February 1 2005. He retires from Hermes, which is owned by the BT Pension Scheme, in December and will be replaced by Mark Anson of the California Public Employees Retirement System.

Witan said Watson would come on board “after a highly successful executive career in the investment management industry”.

Witan added that Jane Platt, the former head of asset management services at data firm Reuters, would also join as a non-executive. Platt and Watson take over from Christopher Clarke and Charlie McVeigh.

Witan chairman Harry Henderson said: “We are delighted that both Jane Platt and Tony Watson have agreed to join the board.

“They both bring enormous experience of investment management as well as having, in different areas, successful records as business managers.”

Witan, which was founded in 1909, moved to a multi-manager structure in September 2004. Previously Henderson Global Investors had been the sole manager of the trust’s assets.

Witan runs around £1.4bn for some 60,000 investors.

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