The Social Stock Exchange has appointed Tomas Carruthers as its new chief executive.

The Social Stock Exchange, which was launched by David Cameron in June 2013, has today announced Carruthers’ appointment, and the succession of Pradeep Jethi, a co-founder of the stock exchange. Jethi will become full time chairman of the Social Stock Exchange’s independent Admissions Panel.

Carruthers said: “We are challenging the misconception that you can either make a market return on your investment, or you can invest in companies seeking to deliver social or environmental impact.

“We want to impress on retail investors and the whole investment community that this is not the case – impact investing can deliver a healthy return. Crucially, we will continue to implement and evolve a standardised framework to assess the positive impact that each business creates.”

Carruthers’ previous role was chief executive of Interactive Investor, a retail investment platform that encourages investors to be engaged with their investments