John Paynter takes on chairman’s role at SLI

INSURANCE giant Standard Life has appointed City grandee John Paynter as a non-executive director and installed him as chairman of Standard Life Investments.

Paynter, 57, who has been on the board of SLI since December last year, takes up his new positions on Sunday. As chairman of SLI he replaces Colin Buchan, who has held the post since 2008.

Buchan, who was one of three long-standing non-executive directors of Royal Bank of Scotland to resist a boardroom cull following the bank’s collapse, will remain as a non-executive director of Standard Life and will continue to chair its investment committee.

Paynter, who spent a 29-year career with blue-blood brokerage to the Queen, Cazenove, retired as vice-chairman of JP Morgan Cazenove before the City firm was bought out by its American investment bank joint venture partner in a £1 billion deal in 2009.

Standard Life said that Paynter will be paid £70,000 a year as a main board director and another £37,500 for chairing the SLI board.

He is well known in the Scottish investment community. Standard Life was one of the insurance firms that invested in Cazenove in 2001 following an aborted flotation of the company when Paynter was deputy chairman.

Gerry Grimstone, chairman of Standard Life, said: “I am very pleased that John Paynter has agreed to join our board. His broad experience of financial services and other high- performing boards will be of great benefit to us”.