Stephen Lansdown resigns as Hargreaves exec director

Stephen Lansdown has taken a step back from the management of Hargreaves Lansdown by resigning as executive director to pursue other interests.

He will stay on at the advisory firm, which he co-founded in 1981, as a non-executive director of the board. This role will be more focused on scrutinising the performance of senior management than the day-to-day running of the firm.

Having previously served as an executive director, Lansdown will not be considered as an independent non-exec.

He says: "Over the course of the year my role has been to focus on challenging the board, to ensure it operates efficiently and profitably.

"I feel this is a role more suited to a non-executive and have, therefore, stepped down from my executive directorships. This will also allow me to concentrate on other interests."

These include his commitments to Bristol City football club, where he is chairman and currently working on a new stadium to be used in the World Cup.

Hargreaves has also strengthened its management board with Chris Barling and Ian Gorham joining as directors.

Gorham, the Group's deputy CEO, joined the company in 2009 and becomes executive director as of 26 August 2010.

As previously announced, he will be appointed as CEO with effect from 2 September 2010. Current CEO Peter Hargreaves will continue as an executive director.

Barling, who has over 30 years IT industry experience and formerly held senior IT roles in Cable & Wireless and Reuters, is appointed an independent non-executive director.

He is the co-founder of Actinic, the software company specialising in ecommerce solutions for SMEs which went public on the London Stock Exchange in May 2000.

Mike Evans, Hargreaves Lansdown chairman, says: "These appointments show a total complement of eight directors, of whom three are executives, four are non-executives, although only three can be deemed as independent, and myself as non-executive chairman.

"Whilst this is not in strict compliance with the UK Code of Governance, we believe it is a strong board to support our new chief executive, and importantly retains the ongoing input of the two founders who remain the largest shareholders in the company."