People Moves

Gartmore Poaches European Equities Veteran From GAM

Rachel Walsh 22 June 2009

Gartmore Poaches European Equities Veteran From GAM

Gartmore has appointed John Bennett, currently at London-hedge fund GAM, as senior manager of its European equities portfolio. Mr Bennett has spent 16 years managing continental and pan-European equities at GAM. Currently, he manages the Star Continental European Equity Fund and the Star European Equity Fund. Mr Bennett is expected to start at Gartmore in early 2010.

He leaves to manage the Gartmore European Selected Opportunities and Gartmore SICAV Continental European funds. The Gartmore funds' current managers, Roger Guy and Guillaume Rambourg, remain in control until Mr Bennett’s arrival, at which point they will concentrate on other alternative and institutional mandates. These include the Capella, Tucana, and Acamar hedge funds, two recently launched European absolute return mutual funds, the Gartmore European Investment Trust and several institutional mandates.

Mr Bennett, who will report to Gartmore chief investment officer Dominic Ross, is also to develop a range of pan-European products for Gartmore. "He follows a blended investment process focused on large-cap stocks similar to the process Guillaume and I use. He has a wealth of experience and a long standing track record of success which will expand and diversify our European Equity capabilities," said fund manager Roger Guy.

"Our European equity franchise has grown significantly in terms of clients and products. Mr Bennett's appointment enables us to satisfy both the performance and service demands of the current environment. With Roger and Guillaume focusing on alternative and institutional products and Mr Bennett concentrating on the long-only funds, we will have one of the strongest European Equity franchises in the market," said Gartmore chief executive John Meyer.

"John joins a list of six other significant recent investment hires, all of whom will accelerate our organic growth," said chief investment officer Dominic Rossi, referring to a raft of recent hires including Kam Tugnait as head of high yield.  Mr Tugnait will join Gartmore later in the year, along with John Anderson, whose appointment as head of credit was announced in February.

In April, the firm also recruited Dan Roberts from Aviva Investors to manage its £137 million ($202 million) UK Equity Income Fund. Mr Roberts will join Gartmore in mid-July.

Gartmore provides investment management products and services to investors in the UK, Continental Europe, the US, Japan and Latin America, and as at 29 May 2009, the firm managed £17.8 billion in assets under management. Headquartered in London, Gartmore also has offices in Boston, Frankfurt, Madrid and Tokyo.

Register for WealthBriefing today

Gain access to regular and exclusive research on the global wealth management sector along with the opportunity to attend industry events such as exclusive invites to Breakfast Briefings and Summits in the major wealth management centres and industry leading awards programmes