The Scotland-headquartered asset management firm has chosen one of its partners to lead its North American offering.

Baillie Gifford has appointed Tom Slater as head of its North American team.

Slater, who has been with Baillie Gifford for 15 years, joined the firm's London-listed subsidiary Scottish Mortgage as deputy manager in 2009. He became a partner in the firm in 2012.

He will continue in his role of joint manager of the £3.6 billion ($5.6 billion) Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust, which he has managed alongside James Anderson since 2009.

Based in Baillie Gifford's Edinburgh head office, Slater replaces the interim head of the North American team, Gary Robinson, who will retain a leading role within the team. In other movements, John MacDougall will transfer from the firm's global discovery team to the long-term global growth team.

“Tom Slater’s appointment underlines our commitment to building a world class North American Equities team, and will also ensure that this group maintains close ties with our global strategies,” said Charles Plowden, joint senior partner at Baillie Gifford.

Last week, Baillie Gifford appointed Praveen Kumar as fund manager of its £239 million Japanese Smaller Companies Fund. The firm employs almost 900 people and has assets under management and advice of £110.6 billion as at the end of September.