Unigestion, the Geneva-based asset manager has appointed Philippe Gougenheim as managing director and head of hedge funds, effective 1 May.

Gougenheim will join Unigestion from Man Investments, where he was a senior portfolio manager, chairman of the investment committee and head of strategic research and management. Prior to that, he was managing director at Millennium Capital Management.

Based in Geneva, Gougenheim’s new responsibilities will include leading the further development of Unigestion’s funds of hedge funds business, which comprises 37 investment professionals in offices in Geneva, London, New York, Paris, Guernsey and Singapore.

Konstantinos Iordanidis, the previous head of Unigestion’s hedge funds division left the company in February after just five months in the role. At that time a spokesperson for the firm told WealthBriefing that his departure was the result of “differences of management style.”

Iordanidis was appointed as managing director and head of hedge funds in September 2008, joining Unigestion from Olympia Capital Management in Paris, where he had been co-chief investment officer since 2005.

At the time of his hire, Unigestion said that Iordanidis’s appointment would allow chairman Bernard Sabrier and chief executive Patrick Fenal to devote more time to the overall management of the group and its strategic direction over the next decade.

Following the departure of Iordanidis Fenal resumed his role of overseeing Unigestion's fund of hedge fund management.