The former global head of brand and marketing at Aberdeen has spoken out about the asset manager’s rebrand in 2021, saying the Abrdn moniker was “the first name out of the blocks” and ultimately failed due to a lack of “cohesion and consistency in execution”.

Simon Bailey, who worked for more than a decade at the Edinburgh-headquartered group until the end of 2022, said the “awkward truncated name” it chose to replace Standard Life Aberdeen partly came about due to time pressures.