Alliance Trust has promoted chief investment officer Katherine Garrett-Cox, the fund manager who swapped the City for Dundee last year, to replace outgoing chief executive Alan Harden.

Ms Garrett-Cox will take charge of the Scottish company on August 29 when Mr Morden departs for a new role with ING in Asia.

Dubbed "Katherine the Great" when she juggled the dual responsibilities of overseeing £162 billion in assets for Morley Fund Management and four children under the age of seven, Ms Garrett-Cox made headlines last year by taking on the comparatively smaller role at Alliance Trust.

She signed on for an initial annual package worth more than £1 million a year — equivalent to her pay at Morley — but the move was seen by some as proof that it is impossible to combine a big City role with motherhood.

At the time, Mr Harden said the smaller scale of Alliance would allow Ms Garrett-Cox to have a greater impact on the direction of the company than she would at Morley, a division of insurance giant Aviva.

Today, Alliance chairman Lesley Knox said Ms Garrett-Cox, 40, had been chosen to succeed Mr Harden for having delivered on her mandate to modernise the company's investment approach.

"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 in her current role," Mr Knox said.

Ms Garrett-Cox 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."

The stock market took the news of her appointment in its stride, with Alliance Trust shares fading 2p to 306p in early trades.

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