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(Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of London-listed company director and manager changes announced in the past week and not separately reported by Alliance News:

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Smithson Investment Trust PLC - Hires Mike Balfour as non-executive chair, effective immediately. Balfour is currently chair of investment trusts Fidelity China Special Situations PLC and abrdn Property Income Trust Ltd. Diana Dyer Bartlett, the current chair, remains on the board, becoming chair of the audit committee. On Monday, Smithson, founded by stock picker Terry Smith, described its 2024 performance as "far from what we expected", as total return per share on net asset value was well short of the company's benchmark. Total NAV return per share was 2.1% last year. This compared to 12% for the MSCI World Small & Mid Cap index. "After a strong market sell-off in the last few days of the year, our final performance for 2024 can only be described as mediocre," it said. The Times on Monday reported that a fund managed by activist investor Saba Capital Management LP took a small stake in Smithson late last year.

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British Land Co PLC - developer of office campuses and urban logistics properties in London and of retail parks throughout the UK - Promotes Emma Cariaga to chief operating officer, succeeding David Walker, who moved to chief financial officer back in November. Cariaga, who was joint head of the Canada Water residential development in south London, a joint venture with pension fund AustralianSuper Pty Ltd, now will lead all property management, among other roles, while continuing to head up the Residential business. Head of Development David Lockyer will take on additional responsibility for the Canada Water project, which aims to deliver up to 4,000 new homes.

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Molten Ventures PLC - London-based venture capital firm investing in high-growth technology companies - Confirms Interim CFO Andrew Zimmermann as permanent CFO and board director. Zimmermann has been interim CFO since October, having joined as finance director in November 2023.

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Character Group PLC - Surrey, England-based toys, games and giftware company - Promotes Hamun Shah to finance director and board member, starting on Saturday. At the same time, Kiran Shah will relinquish finance director duties but remain joint managing director of the company. Hamun Shah and Kiran Shah are not related. Hamun Shah joined Character Group in March last year as CFO.

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Getech Group PLC - Leeds, England-based provider of geo-energy and green hydrogen location services - Chief Executive Officer Richard Bennett departs the company immediately on Thursday last week. Bennett had joined Getech as non-executive chair at the start of 2021 and became interim executive chair in February 2023 before moving to CEO in February last year. Chris Jepps, who has been COO since 2018, will be interim CEO for an initial term of six months.

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Nichols PLC - Merseyside, England-based soft drinks maker - David Taylor, who was interim CFO from June 2023 to March 2024, will rejoin Nichols as a non-board finance director on Monday next week to support current CFO Richard Newman who will be undergoing cancer treatment, Nichols says. Newman will remain CFO and a board member throughout the period.

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Zoo Digital Group PLC - Phillip Blundell resigns as CFO "to pursue other opportunities". Blundell will remain in post and on the board until the summer to oversee the release of Zoo Digital's financial 2025 results. Its financial year ends on March 31. For the half-year that ended September 30, Zoo Digital reported a pretax loss of USD2.7 million, narrowed from USD10.1 million a year before, as revenue improved to USD27.6 million from USD21.4 million. The company has started to look for Blundell's successor.

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GS Chain PLC - looking to make acquisitions in the technology space - Names Leon Filipovic as executive chair, starting immediately, while Alan Austin leaves the board. "We continue to work hard on shareholders' behalf to select an attractive acquisition target and hope to update the market presently," Filipovic says. GS Chain also hires Bowsprit Partners Ltd as its sole financial adviser.

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Shield Therapeutics PLC - Gateshead, England-based pharmaceutical firm focused on treating iron deficiency - Confirms Interim CEO Anders Lundstrom as permanent CEO. Boston, Massachusetts-based Lundstrom has been interim CEO since July last year. He had joined the board in early 2021, having worked for pharmaceutical and biotech companies including AstraZeneca PLC and Biogen Inc.

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Mind Gym PLC - London-based personal and business coaching services - Hires Adam Maude to be chief commercial officer of its US operations, a non-board position. Maude led global sales at US sales training firm Challenger Inc, which was acquired by Richardson Sales Performance back in September. Mind Gym notes the US market already represents 40% of group sales and offers significant growth potential.

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Active Energy Group PLC - London-based biomass-based renewable energy - Non-Executive Chair James Leahy will leave the board at the upcoming annual general meeting. Active Energy holds its AGMs in July. Company does not announce a successor but appoints two new directors, Paul Elliott and Pankaj Rajani, both effective immediately.

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By Tom Waite, Alliance News editor

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