ROTHSCHILD TO APPOINT FIRST NON-FAMILY CHIEF / THE FINANCIAL TIMES

Rothschild to appoint first non-family chief

By Megan Murphy, Investment Banking Correspondent

Published: February 9 2010 23:32

The Rothschild banking dynasty is to appoint a non-family member as chief executive for the first time in its 212-year history, as the group seeks to adapt its management structure to the post-crisis climate.

Nigel Higgins, a 27-year veteran of the company who has co-headed the investment banking business for the past decade, will become chief executive of the family holding company in March, taking over from David de Rothschild.

Mr Rothschild – he and his son are the only two Rothschild family members involved in the business – will remain as executive chairman.

“We all know that organisations that stay static and don’t change go backwards, not forwards,” Mr Rothschild told the Financial Times.

The dynasty traces its roots to 1798, when 21-year-old Nathan Mayer Rothschild arrived in England from Germany to start a textile business. With the Channel blockade of the Napoleonic wars making exports difficult, Nathan turned by 1809 to London’s financial markets to make his fortune.

Within a decade, his four brothers had established banking houses in Paris, Vienna, Naples and Frankfurt.

Rothschild has about 900 investment bankers worldwide, with its advisory business fairly evenly split between mergers and acquisitions work and corporate finance. The group has a smaller operation in private banking and asset management.

Mr Higgins, who joined the firm as a graduate, described the change as “evolutionary rather than revolutionary”. He said that to split the chairman’s and chief executive’s roles would free Mr Rothschild to pursue opportunities.

The group recently closed its first private equity fund, a €600m (£527m) investment vehicle seeded by Rothschild staff as well as outside investors, as it seeks to diversify revenue streams from advisory work.

Mr Higgins said the sense of “instability” and “mistrust” at some larger investment banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis had also formed opportunities for the bank, in terms of recruiting senior people as well as in winning market share.

John Kingman, former chief of UK Financial Investments, was one of the firm’s most recent high-profile recruits.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010