Fidelity International has appointed Ben Waterhouse as head of UK wholesale sales, a position in which he will work closely with wealth managers.

Waterhouse joins the firm from Legal & General Investment Management, where he was latterly head of sales. At Fidelity he will report to Gary Shaughnessy, UK managing director.

In his new position Waterhouse will assume responsibility for building on existing relationships with wealth managers, retail banks, insurers and the discretionary market. He takes over these responsibilities from Peter Hicks, head of UK retail sales, who has been caretaking them since the departure of Michael Jones to Janus Capital in 2008.

Waterhouse will not join the firm immediately, but will take up the position within the next few months; however Fidelity wanted to make it clear to the market that an official appointment had been made, a spokesperson for the firm told WealthBriefing.

"This is an important and growing part of the market for us and with Ben’s expertise we will be able to focus in greater depth on the services that we offer and on tailoring our investment expertise to the needs of these clients,” said Shaughnessy.