Coast Asset Management makes ex-AIG exec its international marketing chief. Coast Asset Management has put former AIG Investments executive Heidi Walker Pfabe in charge of international marketing. The Santa Monica, Calif.-based fund-of-funds firm says the appointment is necessary to keep up with demand from high-net-worth and institutional investors around the world.

"We are delighted to welcome Ms. Walker Pfabe to the Coast team as we develop global capabilities for the expansion of our client base outside the U.S.," says Coast's COO Roger Hartley. "International markets present Coast with significant opportunities for client diversification and we look forward to building upon the solid progress we have been making in London and in Asia."

Pfabulous

Hartley, formerly with the investment bank Jeffries Putnam Lovell, is one a spate of senior-level hires Coast has made over the past eight or 10 months. Other appointments include chief compliance officer Susan Mosher (formerly with State Street's Investors Bank & Trust) and general counsel Jonathan Jacobs (formerly with Financial Risk Management).

In 2007, Coast opened an office in London, and lured Sabine Maarschalk away from ABN-Amro to head its sales efforts in Europe and the Middle East -- now as a report to Walker Pfabe.

At New York-based AIG Investments, Walker Pfabe was head of global client relations. Before that, she was head of sales and client service for the Americas at Deutsche Asset Management.

In her new position with Coast, Walker Pfabe will work to expand the firm's sales efforts outside the U.S. and serve as link to investors in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia.

Coast manages $5.7 billion for high-net-worth and institutional investors -- $3 billion in its core multi-manager fund-of-hedge-fund portfolios and $2.7 billion in complementary strategies such as fixed income arbitrage and structured products. -FWR

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