‘Snake Oil Salesman’ Becomes Biggest Money Manager in Scotland

Being vilified by politicians is a career enhancer if Martin Gilbert is any example.
Gilbert, CEO of Aberdeen Asset Management Plc, was condemned by a U.K. lawmaker in 2002 as a “sophisticated snake oil salesman” for his company’s part in selling funds that lost 620 million pounds ($1 billion). Gilbert completes a purchase today that makes his firm Scotland’s largest fund manager, with about $230 billion of assets.

“He is an example of someone who confronted the mistakes he made and learned the lessons,” said John McFall, the Labour Party member of parliament who disparaged Gilbert seven years ago. “Martin’s story is relevant to what is going on in the financial industry.”

The rehabilitation of the 53-year-old Scot contrasts with the public outcry against former chairmen and CEOs ranging from Fred Goodwin, who led Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc to the biggest loss in British history, to Citigroup Inc.’s Charles O. “Chuck” Prince, UBS AG’s Marcel Ospel and Merrill Lynch & Co.’s Stanley O’Neal, who presided over unprecedented losses before their premature departures during the past two years.

Goodwin, ousted last October as the U.K. government bailed out RBS, was grilled by the cross-party Treasury Committee on Feb. 10, with McFall asking him if “hubris on your part” brought down the bank.

“People’s memories are ultimately short,” said Colin McLean, CEO of Edinburgh-based SVM Asset Management Ltd.,

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