Northern Trust has appointed Katherine Ellis Nixon as chief investment officer for its personal financial services division.

Nixon joined Northern Trust in 2004 as a senior portfolio manager and went on to become chief investment officer for the Northeast region in 2005. Before joining Northern Trust, she worked at US Trust for 18 years.

In her new role as CIO across the firm’s private client investment business, she will guide the management of $163 billion in assets and oversee portfolio managers working in 18 states. She is also responsible for the unit’s strategic direction and the development of its investment platform.

She is a voting member of Northern Trust's committees for investment policy, tactical asset allocation and investment advisory.

It is not clear if Nixon replaces anyone in this role, and the firm had not provided comment by the time of publication.

Northern Trust has made a string of promotions within its personal financial services business this year. In June, it opened a private client office in the Washington DC market and appointed Joanne Stringer as a managing director there. She took over that role directly from her previous position as MD of the Stamford, Connecticut PFS team, which in turn was taken over by Brian Donovan.

Before that, John Hoffman was appointed as president of the PFS unit in New York, responsible for overall management of the division there.