Exeter-headquartered Hawksmoor Investment Management, a boutique firm specialising in discretionary portfolio management, has appointed Jim Wood-Smith as head of research and Henry Rising as a senior investment manager, with effect from January 2014.

Wood-Smith will join Hawksmoor following his departure from Investec, where he was formerly the firm's chief investment strategist. Before that,Wood-Smith served as head of research at Williams de Broë and has also worked at private client investment managers Greig Middleton and Gerrard.

Rising is a former investment director at Williams de Broë (formerly Christows) and decided to leave Williams de Broë in 2013 shortly after the completion of its takeover by Investec Wealth & Investment.

Assisting Wood-Smith and Rising at Hawksmoor will be sales & marketing specialist Jill Gill, who also worked at Investec, Williams de Broë and Christows.