What next for Stanley Fink? The City hedge-fund veteran has decided to retire from Man Group, the industry giant he helped create — and he has no shortage of plans.

Mr Fink, 50, has spent more than two decades at Man Group, the world’s largest publicly listed hedge-fund group. He served as chief executive from 2000 to 2007, and became non-executive deputy chairman last year. Mr Fink will bow out altogether at the company’s annual meeting in July.

“It is nostalgic,” he tells People. “It’s the end of a very long and hugely happy journey that has existed for more than half of my whole lifetime.”

Mr Fink, known as “The Godfather” of UK hedge funds, has decided to dedicate more of his time to philanthropy and has agreed to chair Shadow Chancellor George Osborne’s new green-technology enterprise, Green Environmental Market (GEM) — a trading market for companies focused on green technology. He has also committed to two new philanthropic and business ventures, in addition to his ongoing charitable involvements as a trustee of children’s charity ARK and the Guy’s and St Thomas’s Charity.

Ranked 18th in this year’s Sunday Times Giving List, Mr Fink says: “I will probably spend two days on charity, two days on business, and the rest of the time with family — and trying to get a bit fitter.”

He admits to feeling slightly apprehensive about leaving Man Group. “I know from past experiences that when this happens there is also the feeling of trepidation and stepping into the unknown. The truth is that, when I’ve done it in the past, there is usually a period of around four to six weeks’ adjustment, and then one tends to move forward in life and get used to the new venture.

“I’m hoping that will be the same this time, although I am feeling more of the apprehension and nostalgia of leaving and trepidation of the new venture. I haven’t yet got to the point of feeling comfort with the new, but I am sure it will come in time.”