Mark Russell, chief executive of UK Government Investments, is to leave the organisation, which manages a portfolio including the government’s stake in RBS and the residual assets of Bradford & Bingley and Northern Rock.

Russell has been appointed as the new chair of Defence Equipment & Support, an arm of the UK Ministry of Defence that purchases equipment for the armed forces. He will take up that role “later in the year” after a UKGI successor has been identified, the body said in a statement on July 30.