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CEO INTERVIEW
The former CEO of Schroders has re-emerged at a very different kind of investment firm. David Salisbury explains why it may be time for cynical investors to embrace a more scientific approach.
THE CONTRAST COULD hardly be more marked. From sitting atop the UK's largest independent asset manager, David Salisbury has now taken the reins at its smallest. In March, Salisbury became chief executive of the new UK-based arm of Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA), a business with nearly $40 billion under management in the US but which has yet to secure its first European clients.
Seven months earlier he had resigned as CEO of Schroder Investment Management after two years of sliding profits and leaking assets. He had been criticised for being too conservative, for lacking the dynamism needed to reverse the declining fortunes of the UK's most prestigious investment house. It would be understandable if he felt he had a point to prove. But Salisbury isn't about to bad mouth his former employer. Having joined Schroders straight after graduating from Oxford in 1974 he retains a strong bond with the firm. Given the chance, he says he would do it all again.
Nevertheless, his decision to join DFA might be seen as a discrete two-fingered salute to the establishment, a radical departure from the old-school of UK asset management. Certainly he seems to be relishing the challenge. "In some ways I should have done this a long time ago," he muses. "Maybe it's easier to take risks when you're 50, your children have grown up and you've paid the mortgage."
If taking the job and a significant equity stake in DFA is a risk, then it's a calculated one. Backing a business that boasts Nobel prize-winners such as Eugene Fama and Myron Scholes as board members and investors, and has institutional clients of the calibre of Calpers, Citigroup and Stanford University on its books, hardly sounds like a long shot.
After leaving Schroders it took a while for Salisbury to convince himself that he wanted to return to the investment industry. "Everybody said [leaving Schroders] was a fabulous opportunity,"...