Barclays Wealth said it has appointed former Merrill Lynch executive Mitch Cox as managing director and head of the global investment and product office, which is a newly created role.

Mr Cox will be based in New York and will also assume responsibility for leading all of Barclays Wealth’s business activities in the Americas.  He will report directly to Thomas Kalaris, Barclays Wealth’s chief executive, the UK-based firm said in a statement.

Mr Cox joins from Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, where he most recently headed up the global investment solutions group, having previously run its global private client market investment and origination and structured products origination and sales divisions – all at managing director level, the firm said.

Prior to joining Merrill Lynch in 1997, Mr Cox worked in the private bank of the Bankers Trust Company.

“With his [Mr Cox’s] joining comes the potential for us to fundamentally shift our investment and product capabilities in terms of scale, portfolio construction and distribution,” Mr Kalaris said.

“We have also been very clear about our commitment to building a leading wealth management business in the Americas, and Mitch will be responsible for developing a best-in-class infrastructure and investment platform to power it, to attract the best financial advisors and to further our franchise in serving high net worth clients,” he added.

With Mr Cox’s appointment to Barclays Wealth, Kevin Lecocq will remain in the role of global chief investment officer, now reporting to Mr Cox.  In addition, Jack Petersen, head of Barclays Wealth Americas, and Ian Lowitt, chief operating officer, Barclays Wealth Americas, will also report to Mr Cox.

Barclays Wealth had total client assets of $210 billion at 31 December 2008.