Hargreaves Lansdown poaches IG’s Chris Hill to become new CFO

Hill will replace interim chief financial officer Simon Cleveland, Hargreaves Lansdown said in a statement.

In his earlier career, Hill spent time as finance director of the UK and Ireland at VWR global, prior to which he also worked for GE Capital and Arthur Andersen.

Hill joins from IG, where he has been chief financial officer for the last four years.

Now, the Sunday Times has reported that, in October, the government will back an even more ambitious “glass ceiling” proposal in a report from Lord Davies of Abersoch, the former Standard Chartered chairman, for 25 per cent of top-earning positions at FTSE 100 companies to be occupied by women within five years. It is anticipated that Mr Hill will continue in his current role until the end of his notice period and leave IG in February 2016.

“We are disappointed to lose Chris, but we understand his decision”.

IG is a global leader in online trading, providing fast and flexible access to over 10,000 financial markets – including shares, indices, forex, commodities and binaries.

IG Group said it will begin the search for Hill’s successor with “immediate effect”, looking at candidates from both inside and outside the business. “In the meantime, Chris will continue in his current role to ensure we have an orderly handover of responsibilities”. It led to a £27-million loss for the online trading platform provider and was followed by allegations by a group of clients that the company had traded in its own interest several minutes before acting on behalf of its clients during the Swiss franc’s sharp valuation in January.

IG briefly confirmed on Monday that it is trading in line with its expectations.