Michael O'Brien, a non-executive director of asset manager Aberdeen Group and a widely experienced senior executive in the investment industry, passed away unexpectedly on Saturday, the company said.

The 62-year-old joined the Aberdeen board in 2022 and served as a member of the group audit committee and the group risk and capital committee.

Sir Douglas Flint, chairman of Aberdeen, said: “Our deepest condolences go out to Mike's family and friends.

"He will be sorely missed by all his colleagues not only for his insights, wisdom and deep industry knowledge but for his humility, his collegiality and perhaps most of all his warm and generous personality and sense of humour.”

Mr O’Brien was a qualified actuary who held a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Limerick University in Ireland. He had a long career in financial services, working for many major asset managers after studying to become a Chartered Financial Analyst.

He began his career as an investment consultant at Towers Pirrin in 1990, moving to Barclays Global Investors/BlackRock in 2000, where he rose to be managing director and head of institutional business.

In 2010 he moved to JP Morgan Asset Management, rising to be firstly chief executive, of the firm’s EMEA business before becoming co-head of global investment solutions at the firm.

From 2020 he was a senior adviser at Osmosis Investment Management, a non executive director at the independent third-party management company Carne Group, and from 2021 he was a senior adviser at fintech and solutions provider S64 Capital Innovation. He was also investment adviser to the British Coal Pension Funds.

He had previously served on the board of the UK NAPF and was a member of the UK NAPF Defined Benefit Council.

A cause of death has not been disclosed.