Industry stalwart retires after four decades in financial services
It’s the end of an era at award-winning investment platform Parmenion, as the company says goodbye this week, to its Chief Investment Strategist Simon Brett, who retires after 14 years with the firm and a 40-year career in finance and investment.
Well known across the industry, Simon has navigated the complex ups and downs of the UK markets in a broad range of roles including UK Fund Manager and Analyst before taking a role at Parmenion.
Simon joined the then start-up in 2006, becoming instrumental in its expansion throughout the economic crisis of 2008 and in developing the award-winning Parmenion Investment Management (PIM) team. Simon oversaw the creation of PIM’s market-leading investment solutions, including its ethical portfolios whose original launch in 2010 was one of the first ethical MPS on the market.
The PIM team is now 11 strong and responsible for the discretionary management of much of the £7bn in assets on Parmenion. The growing team, which welcomed a new investment manager during lockdown as well as completing a structural reorganisation to improve clarity around solution responsibility and accountability, is led by Managing Director Peter Dalgliesh.
Speaking about his time with Parmenion, Simon commented: “I have had a long, fruitful and very eventful career. The ups have outweighed the inevitable downs and I have learnt some very valuable life lessons.
“My time at Parmenion has been particularly special for me. I’ve been involved in many mergers but Parmenion was about building something special and which could evolve over time. In my time here, I have watched a brilliant company grow and innovate. It’s a bit of contradiction but my last role before retirement has been driving the future for the investment and platform markets. And that has been exciting.
“I am however, looking forward to a well-deserved break, though I’ll be keeping an eye on Parmenion and their continued delivery of attractive risk adjusted returns.”
Peter Dalgliesh added: “Simon has had a long and rewarding career, both here at Parmenion and elsewhere. His work here has helped us to transform the CIP market and his experience and insight will be sorely missed. His retirement has been long-planned however, and while I will personally miss him, on a professional level I know that the PIM team is in great shape following an extended handover period. We are all sad to see him leave but wish him a very happy and well-earned retirement.”