His departure from the group, the product of an 11 billion pound merger between Standard Life Investments and Aberdeen Asset Management in 2017, could be announced as early as Wednesday, the FT said.

His decision to leave SLA is said to be influenced by the revamped UK Corporate Governance code, which states that full-time executive directors should not take on "more than one non-executive directorship in a FTSE 100 company or other significant appointment".

SLA did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting By Sinead Cruise, editing by Iain Withers)