London-based Premier Asset Management has appointed Neil Birrell as manager of the Premier Alternatives Strategies Fund.

Birrell was latterly part of the team managing multi-strategy investments at Elcot Capital. Prior to this, he held fund management positions at Prolific Asset Management and Framlington Asset Management; notably, at the latter firm he served as chief investment officer between 2001 and 2003.

In his new role, Birrell will work closely with Premier’s multi-asset, equity, and fixed interest and property managers.

In October of last year Premier brought on board Simon Wilson - latterly of Old Mutual Asset Managers - as marketing director. The firm has said that it particularly wants to raise awareness of its multi-asset fund range, and to highlight its “investment credentials in global equities, UK equities and fixed income”.

At present, Premier’s offering only extends to multi-asset, global equity, UK equity and fixed income funds; the firm’s marketing literature declares that the firm prefers to “excel at what it does best rather than cover every single investment market”.

Premier currently has £2.1 billion ($3.4 billion) assets under management and around 80 employees.