Salamanca Group, the London-based operational risk management and merchant banking firm, has appointed Catherine Grum as group head of family office services.

Salamanca Group, the London-based operational risk management and merchant banking firm, has appointed Catherine Grum as group head of family office services.

Grum joins from Barclays Wealth & Investment Management, where she was head of UK-international and EMEA wealth advisors at Barclays. When contacted by this publication, Barclays said her responsibilities will be covered by the rest of the team on an ongoing basis.

Based in London, Grum will spearhead the development of a new model for the provision of global family office services, aimed at helping families with increasingly complex issues to deliever on their personal strategic objectives, Salamanca said in a statement.

She started her career at Allen & Overy, where she worked from 2003 to 2009 in the firm’s private client department, providing wide-ranging legal and tax advice to UHNW individuals and family offices.

The appointment follows the acquisition earlier this year of Investec Trust Group from Investec Bank. The business, which has currently over £4.5 billion ($7.3 billion) in assets under administration, will be run as a stand-alone trust and fiduciary business unit of Salamanca Group.

In February, Salamanca Group opened a South African office in Cape Town. The new office will be led by Simon Turner, who has been with the business since foundation in 2002. His role as strategic director at Salamanca Group has involved working with blue chip companies across Africa and the US. Some members of the London team will be seconded to Cape Town and joined by the local trust and fiduciary team from the group’s recent Investec Trust Services acquisition.

Salamanca Group Trust Services offers vanilla trusts, foundations and company structures, provide multi-family office services, financial and non-financial assets holding and entrepreneurial, as well as philanthropic advice.