Arno Kitts. Mentor

Area(s) of expertise

• Investment management since 1989; general management since 1991

Current work

• As Director of UK Institutional Investment, my activities are divided between marketing and relationship management, and general business management. Henderson manages some £22 billion of assets for 300 institutional clients in Europe and manages more than £100 billion worldwide.

Other comments

• I joined what is now known as Forester Life in 1989. I chose a smaller company to get early broad exposure to business. By the time I qualified I was head of investments, and was being given increasing general management responsibility.
• The following year, the organisation became subject to regulatory action. It was as a result of this that I came to face a choice between leaving to focus on investment management, or staying to become CEO of a life company requiring turnaround. I chose the latter - at 30, the challenge and responsibility of strategic and operational business management was exciting and motivating.
• The opportunity that brought me to JP Morgan came in 1997 when a life company was being set up to enter the defined-contribution pension market. At JP Morgan, I progressed rapidly to become Head of UK Institutional Investment in December 1999. I took up my current post at Henderson Global Investors in January 2003.