The current head of Russell’s Australasian business, Alan Schoenheimer, will become head of all the group’s non-US/Canadian operations from January, prompting a restructure here.

The current managing director of Russell’s investor services division, Chris Corneil, will step into Schoenheimer’s shoes but will continue to report to his old boss, who will be based in London and will also join Russell’s eight-member global executive committee, alongside fellow countryman Peter Gunning.

Corneil admitted that he lacked direct experience in a couple of the new areas for which he’ll be responsible, namely the actuarial group and the Super Solutions corporate master trust (which is administered by IBM), but he said those businesses would continue to operate with their present divisional teams.  

Corneil added that he would not be directly replaced in his role running investor services, as Russell would undergo a restructure to "make itself even more client-centric".

The investor services designation will become obsolete as the Russell group splits itself into three new parts – corporate super, institutional/government investment services and retail investment services.

Corneil said the heads of those three new divisions would be announced later this week. A more consolidated model, Corneil said the new structure would now see, for example, all of Russell’s marketing/communications people working together, and all of the product people working together.

Russell was currently "hunkering down on costs" in common with most other financial services firms, Corneil said, but added there was no retrenchment program planned.