Legal and General Investment Management, an institutional asset manager based in Europe, has appointed a new head of institutional business, Sarah Aitken, for Europe and the Middle East.

Legal and General Investment Management has appointed a new head of institutional business, Sarah Aitken, for Europe and the Middle East. She takes on much of the work previously performed by Hugh Cutler, who has left the firm.

The firm said the appointment will aid institutional asset manager LGIM’s business expansion strategy. Aitken, who was previously head of distribution at Insight Investment Management and a managing director at Merrill Lynch Investment Management, is set to join LGIM this September.

“There is considerable momentum behind LGIM’s continued business expansion,” Mike Cranston, global head of distribution at the firm, said in a statement. “Sarah will take the lead on our distribution strategy for future growth,” he added.

LGIM is a European institutional asset manager and global investor, managing over £463 billion ($793.4 billion) in assets for over 3,000 clients as of March 2014. Clients of the firm include wealth management organisations.