Charnock, who retired from abrdn in May 2022 after leading the discretionary business for 15 years, has more than four decades’ experience in the wealth and asset management space. In addition to abrdn, where he was latterly central to the growth of the overall wealth business, Charnock previously served as CEO of Williams de Broe and CEO of Lloyds TSB Private Banking, Lloyds TSB IFA and Lloyds TSB Stockbrokers.

His appointment comes as Wombat, which launched in 2019, recently surpassed the 300,000 user mark in the UK.

In August 2022, Wombat closed a Series A funding round led by Fuel Ventures, raising more than £4m to support its growth plans, forthcoming product launches and international expansion. Wombat estimates it has a total addressable market of 100m users in Europe, where it anticipates strong demand among novice investors for its range of theme-based exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and curated UK, US and EU fractional shares.

“Wombat had a game-changing 2022 and we are absolutely delighted to build on that progress by appointing Richard to our board of directors,” says Kane Harrison, CEO and co-founder of Wombat. “We underwent an intensive search for the right person and Richard’s name came up repeatedly among our advisory board members, industry contacts and backers.

“Richard has seen and been part of huge generational changes across the sector as increasing numbers of investors choose to take ownership of their financial futures, and I can think of no-one better to help guide the management team as Wombat continues to scale rapidly, launch new products and prepares to expand into Europe.”

Richard Charnock says: “Wombat is one of the fastest-growing investment platforms in the UK and it has some very exciting times ahead of it.

“It is abundantly clear that Wombat has a huge opportunity not only in the UK but in Europe, with so many novice investors on the Continent lacking a truly engaging proposition to help them get started on their investment journeys. I have been very impressed with Kane and the management team and I look forward to helping them deliver their ambitious growth strategy in the months and years ahead.”