Northern Trust, the US banking group, has appointed former Robeco senior manager Kais Abbas to be head of investment business development for the Middle East.

Abbas reports to John Krieg, Northern Trust's managing director of asset management in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Abbas is based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, supported by central teams in London and Chicago. At Robeco Group, Abbas spent six years based in Bahrain as country manager for Kuwait and Qatar in addition to various general management responsibilities.

This is the latest in a number of business development hires by Northern Trust. In 2009, Jay Powell was hired to develop the UK asset management business; Gerard van Leusden and Arnaud Bizet, business development directors for The Netherlands, based in Amsterdam, joined  in 2010; and Kristina Ilar, head of business development for the Nordic region, based in Stockholm, was appointed earlier this year.