The international investment house has created a new position in the US to drive institutional business.

Pioneer Investments, part of Italy’s UniCredit, has named John Black as senior vice president, institutional business development officer in the US.

Based in Boston, Black is taking on a newly-created role at the firm, he said in a statement yesterday.

“John has more than 20 years of experience within various segments of the institutional market and has developed a number of strong relationships over the course of his career that will be a welcome addition to Pioneer Investments,” Bill Porter, head of institutional, North America, and SVP, said.

Previously, Black was SVP, institutional sales at McKenzie Investments Corp in Toronto, Ontario. Prior to that, he was VP of institutional sales at State Street Global Advisors in Boston from 2007 to 2013.

Pioneer Investments has offices in 28 countries, 2,000 employees and approximately €221 billion ($246 billion) in assets under management as of 30 June.