U.K. wealth manager goes for industrial strength distribution capabilities. London-based Barclays Wealth has hired investment-platform specialist Mitch Cox away from Bank of America's Merrill Lynch to serve as head of its Global Investment & Product Office (I&PO) unit. He will report to Barclays Wealth CEO Thomas Kalaris.

Cox will be based in New York -- in recognition of "the significant international reach of Barclays Wealth and the growing importance of its Americas business," according to a Barclays Wealth press release.

Growth manager

A few weeks ago, Barclays Wealth pledged to expand in the Americas, using the private investment-management business it acquired from Lehman Brothers immediately after the New York-based investment bank's collapse last year as a springboard for expansion in the U.S. The firm said it would look at acquisitions in the U.S. and Latin America as a source of additional growth in the New World.

"We have also been very clear about our commitment to building a leading wealth-management business in the Americas, and Mitch will be responsible for developing a best-in-class infrastructure and investment platform to power it, to attract the best financial advisors and to further our franchise in serving high net worth clients," says Kalaris. "With his joining comes the potential for us to fundamentally shift our investment and product capabilities in terms of scale, portfolio construction and distribution."

Kevin Lecocq remains chief investment officer of Barclays Wealth, though now as a report to Cox. Jack Petersen, head of Barclays Wealth in the Americas, and Ian Lowitt, COO of the U.K. wealth manager's western hemisphere business, will also report to Cox.

"With the addition of Mitch to our senior team, we now have the breadth of talent in place to achieve the next stage of our growth ambitions," says Kalaris.

An attorney by trade, Cox had been head of Merrill's investment-product incubator. Prior to joining Merrill in 1997, he worked in the derivative and hedge fund units of New York-based Bankers Trust (now part of Deutsche Bank).

Barclays Wealth is a division of Barclays Bank. It had total client assets of $239 billion on 31 December 2008. -FWR

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