James Dyson hires new CEO to oversee his $26.8 billion fortune
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The move is the latest staffing shake-up at the firm overseeing Britain’s biggest fortune.
PHOTO: ST FILE
Follow topic:
Mr James Dyson’s family holding company has tapped a legal veteran from his technology empire to be its next chief executive officer (CEO), the latest staffing shake-up at the firm overseeing Britain’s biggest fortune.
Mr Martin Bowen, 56, was appointed to the top job at Weybourne in February, according to British registry filings, following more than two decades of service at Dyson, where he has been its chief legal officer most recently.
He succeeds Mr James Bucknall, 66, a former British army officer who helped lead Weybourne for more than a decade.
A representative for Mr Dyson – Britain’s richest person with a net worth of about US$19.9 billion (S$26.8 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index – declined to comment.
An automated e-mail from Mr Bucknall’s Weybourne account said he has left the firm and directed queries to current staff.
Closely held Weybourne, which seldom shares details, is among the world’s largest family investment firms with more than 60 employees between Britain and Singapore helping to support Mr Dyson’s fortune.
His assets include his company that makes vacuum cleaners, hairdryers and headphones, as well as an English country estate and one of Britain’s largest farming businesses.
In 2024, Weybourne promoted senior money manager Jane Simpson to chief investment officer for its financial assets, while real estate professional Gareth Herrington exited the firm.
In recent months, it hired former Amundi executive Claudio Cadei for a London role focusing on areas including stock market investments, while Mr Sheener Ooi became Dyson Farming’s chief financial officer after working at building products firm Ibstock.
Mr Bowen, a law graduate, joined Mr Dyson’s namesake business in the late 1990s and rose up the ranks as the company turned into one of the world’s biggest makers of household gadgets.
In 2019, the year he was named as Dyson’s chief legal officer after serving almost a decade as group general counsel, he began a stint in Singapore as part of Dyson establishing a global headquarters in the city-state. He later returned to Britain.
Mr Bucknall earned a reputation as one of the world’s most respected leaders for family investment firms during his tenure as Weybourne’s CEO. He joined the firm after retiring from the British army and having served in a senior role at Nato. BLOOMBERG
