GAM heads, Mark Hawtin and Jeremy Roberts, are set to join Liontrust Asset Management in the coming months as head of global growth equities, and head of global distribution (ex UK), respectively.
Mark Hawtin
Hawtin – who spent 15 years with the business – will leave his role as head of global growth equity, along with his team, in May. The team – made up of David Goodman, Kevin Kruczynski and Pieran Maru currently manage the GAM Star Disruptive Growth and GAM Star Alpha Technology funds.
Roberts is set to join Liontrust earlier, in April, having most recently served as global head of distribution at GAM. In his new role he will be responsible for growing global distribution outside the UK specifically, focused on: Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Nordics, Iberia and Latin America, Benelux and France. Prior to GAM, Roberts was co-head of EMEA retail sales and head of UK retail business at BlackRock.
Speaking in an announcement, Liontrust asserted that the appointments will “enable Liontrust to expand its fund offering, international distribution and client base”.
“Mark Hawtin and his team are an important addition to Liontrust given the importance of global equities across the client base. Mark has a strong track record in managing long only and long/short equity funds at Marshall Wace and then GAM and further enhances our global capabilities,” said John Ions, chief executive of Liontrust.
He added: “Jeremy has successfully built global distribution and will be responsible for expanding our client relationships and partnerships in continental Europe and South America.”
The move follows last year’s conditional agreement between the two firms, which saw Liontrust conditionally agree to acquire its Swiss competitor GAM Holding for £96 million back in May, following murmurs of the deal in April.
The deal, once completed, was set to create a global asset manager with £53 billion in assets under management and administration. However, the board of GAM Holding subsequently declared Liontrust Asset Management’s offer for the business unsuccessful and in August, an agreement was instead made with Rock Investment SAS and Newgame to finance the business’ liquidity needs.
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Following Hawtin’s departure, Newton Investment Management Group’s Paul Markham is set to take over as head of global growth equities at GAM from next month, with Hawtin remaining for the time being to ensure a smooth handover.
Speaking to his appointment, Paul Markham enthused: “This is an exciting time to join GAM’s highly regarded global growth and disruptive equities team. I share GAM’s belief in building concentrated long-only portfolios with high active share and diversified risk in order to deliver long-term outperformance for clients.
“I am looking forward to working with the team to deepen and expand the firm’s expertise across the considerable market opportunity set in global equities.”
Markham is set to join as an investment director and leaves Newton after more than 25 years. He will report to Elmar Zumbuehl, chief executive of GAM and lead a team of five, The TRADE understands.
He was most recently head of global equities at Newton, playing a key role in the growth of the firm’s global equity franchise and overseeing assets of around £7 billion.
Since October, GAM has seen a swathe of appointments in a bid to grow the business and increase profits following last year’s acquisition saga.
Speaking to Markham’s appointment, Zumbuehl , said: “I am delighted to welcome Paul to GAM, his experience and track record will help us grow our global equity franchise as part of our strategy which is focused on creating long-term value for all our clients, shareholders, and employees.
“I would also like to thank Mark for his contribution to GAM over many years and I am pleased that he will remain with the firm for the next few months to ensure a smooth handover to Paul.”