James Anderson

He will retire on April 30 next year.

Mr Anderson, who has donated millions of pounds to Scottish football clubs to help them through the coronavirus crisis, will on April 29 this year be nominated to stand as non-executive chairman of Swedish investment company Kinnevik AB, which is quoted on the Nasdaq Stockholm Stock Exchange.

Scottish Mortgage’s half-year report published last November showed it had, over the 10 years to September 30, 2020, achieved a total return on net asset value of 674%. This was way ahead of a total return of 191% on the FTSE All-world index.

The trust last November declared long-run stock market returns were driven by a “small number of exceptional companies”, flagging its stakes in Tesla, Amazon and Chinese group Tencent.

Tom Slater, who has been joint manager of Scottish Mortgage since 2015, will continue as manager of the Baillie Gifford-run investment trust, the largest in the UK, The Herald reports.

In what is described as the “next step in the long-term transition plan”, Lawrence Burns will become deputy manager of the trust with immediate effect.

Andrew Telfer, joint senior partner of Edinburgh-based Baillie Gifford, said: “James has been central to the strategic leadership and growth of Baillie Gifford. He has encouraged us to be ambitious as a firm and has instilled a long term, global and indexagnostic approach to our investing. And, most importantly, James has achieved remarkable investment returns for our clients. We are giving our clients a year’s notice that he is leaving the firm. Our transition process is tried and tested over generations.”

Mr Anderson joined Baillie Gifford in 1983 and became a partner four years later. He has managed Scottish Mortgage since 2000.