David Rough, the former director of investments at Legal & General and a well-known character in the UK fund management industry, has taken his first non-executive role by joining the board of Land Securities, the property company.

As Legal & General's director of investments, he saw the firm rise to become the UK's largest manager of pension fund assets. At the end of 1995 the firm managed £13bn (€21bn) for pension funds. At the end of 2001 this had grown to £78bn, an average growth rate of 35% a year over six years. Legal & General benefited from an industry-wide swing to index-tracking and from being well-known, as an insurer, in the UK corporate market.