Katherine Garrett-Cox, one of the most high-profile female fund managers in Europe, has resigned from Aberdeen Asset Management to join Morley Fund Management as chief investment officer.

Garrett-Cox will start work at Morley's London office in the new year and replace Gerald Holtham, who is due to retire next summer. Garrett-Cox, 35, has spent the past two years as chief investment officer at Aberdeen, which is at the centre of the probe into the collapse of split-capital investment trusts that left investors nursing heavy losses.