RWC Partners, the London-based fund manager, has appointed John Bennett as IFA sales director as part of moves to boost its profile in the intermediary market.

Bennett was latterly with JP Morgan Asset Management, where he had spent some 15 years after initially joining the IFA sales team, and he has experience across various parts of the UK intermediary market, RWC said in a statement.

The UK is a regarded as a “critical” market for RWC, as it currently accounts for around 40 per cent of the assets in the firm’s UCITS III Convertible Bond and US Absolute Alpha funds, Peter Harrison, chief executive, said in a statement.

"It is very important to us that we have the right structure in place to ensure that IFAs wishing to invest in our funds can do so with ease and the appointment of John will help us ensure we offer the highest quality service to our intermediary clients,” he said.

"We will continue to grow our UCITS III fund offering which will increase our presence in the UK market. John’s appointment demonstrates our commitment to our UK client base as well as to growing the business in the UK."

Bennett’s appointment closely follows RWC's recruitment of Nick Purves and Ian Lance, the top-rated managers of Schroder’s UK Equity Income Fund, to manage its Value and Income funds.

Purves is a veteran of some 16 years at Schroders, while Lance joined the firm in 2007; in his prior career Lance was head of global equity research at Gartmore and head of European equities at Citigroup. Both join RWC in August.