People Moves
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.