Ignis Asset Management has appointed Graham Ashby to manage the UK Equity Income Fund within its £5.7 billion (about $8.9 billion) UK equity team.

Ashby has over 21 years of investment experience and was previously lead manager of the LV= UK Equity Income Fund. He was also recently head of UK equities at LV= Asset Management, a position in which he oversaw £1.3 billion of assets.

Before that, he was head of UK retail equities at Credit Suisse Asset Management, where he was lead manager of three UK equity income funds, the firm said. 

In addition, Ashby has also worked at Sarasin Chiswell as head of equity income and UK equities. He has also managed numerous UK equity income portfolios at Deutsche Asset Management, where he launched the DWS UK Equity Income Plus Fund in February 2003.

Ignis has some £78 billion in assets under management, including £10.6 billion of stock lending, as of 30 September 2011.