Katherine the Great takes the reins at Alliance Trust

One of the City's most powerful women was today promoted to chief executive of the £2.6 billion Alliance Trust. Katherine Garrett-Cox, 40, will succeed Alan harden who shocked investors when he resigned last month. Harden poached Garrett-Cox from the massive Morley fund management arm of Norwich Union in May last year to become the FTSE 100 Alliance's chief investment officer. She will continue in that role when she also becomes chief executive at the end of this month.

Known within the industry as "Katherine the Great", Garrett-Cox previously worked at Hill Samuel, Fidelity and Aberdeen Asset Management. When she moved to Alliance last year Garrett-Cox received a £700,000 golden handshake to compensate for lost bonuses at Morley. That helped to boost her first year's pay package to just over £1 million. By contrast, harden was paid £457,000.

The move also saw Garrett-Cox quit the pressure cooker of the City of London for the greener pastures of Dundee, the home of fruitcake and orange marmalade where she lives with her Scottish husband and four young children.

She said: "Alliance Trust has an enviable reputation based upon its long-term track record of global equity investment and I am fortunate to have the opportunity to reinforce this tradition."

Today's appointment confirms her position as one of the most powerful women in fund management, ranking alongside if not ahead of Bramdean's Nicola Horlick and JO Hambro's Nicola Pease.

Following the merger of two massive investment trusts to form Alliance two years ago, Garrett-Cox has plenty of work to do. Critics claim the fund has underperformed and that the share price is still at too great a discount to net asset value.

Alliance chairman Lesley Knox said: "Katherine has played an integral role on the board since she joined us last year and has already made significant steps to modernise Alliance Trust's investment process."