Franklin Templeton Investments, the California-headquartered asset manager, has promoted David Zahn to the newly-created role of head of European fixed income, based in London.

The firm is enhancing its European fixed income capabilities, and Zahn will lead this effort for the Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group. He will work with his team of nine investment professionals based in London and four in San Mateo to generate investment ideas and solutions focused on European fixed income.  

The initiative will also involve adding new local investment resources on the ground in Europe, to leverage the fixed income group’s established global research platform.

Zahn will retain his responsibilities as senior vice president and portfolio manager, overseeing the Global Aggregate, Global Government and Euro Aggregate fixed income strategies and funds. He manages several of the firm’s funds, including Templeton Strategic Bond Fund2, Templeton Euro Government Bond Fund3 and Templeton European Corporate Bond Fund3.

Zahn has been working at Franklin Templeton since 2006. He has over 19 years of experience working in the asset management industry, and has managed European fixed income portfolios for over a decade.

Prior to joining the firm, Zahn was a senior portfolio manager at Citigroup Asset Management where he oversaw European fixed income and Libor Plus portfolios.

Franklin Templeton Investments had $809 billion in assets under management at end-January 2013.