GAM has announced the appointment of Rupert Cecil as Client Director in its Managed Portfolios team in London. Cecil joins from Credit Suisse Private Bank where he has worked since 2007 as a Private Client Advisor with the UK Finance Market Professional Team. Prior to this he was a Director at Kleinwort Benson for six years and Head of UK Equities and International Portfolios. His career in financial services has spanned nearly 20 years working in a number of roles at Cazenove, Deutsche Asset Management, Henderson Administration and British and Commonwealth Merchant Bank. Commenting on the appointment, Graham Wainer, Group Head of Private Clients & Portfolio Management for GAM said: “We are delighted that Rupert has joined our private client team in London and I am sure he will make an outstanding contribution. He has extensive experience of developing a strong and diverse client base, coupled with an outstanding knowledge of multi asset class solutions within an open architecture platform and creation of bespoke results for clients.” In addition, GAM has announced the appointment of Jonathan Colchester as UK Head of Private Clients. Colchester will join GAM’s London office on 22 May 2009 and will report to Graham Wainer, Group Head of Private Clients & Portfolio Management. He joins from Barclays Private Bank where he led a team of six bankers, focusing on Ultra High Net Worth and Media clients. Colchester was previously a Senior Client Partner at Coutts & Co where he set up the Media and Entertainment Client Group. He has also worked as a Director at NM Rothschild Private Management, Credit Suisse Asset Management and Merrill Lynch.

Butterfield Fulcrum has announced the appointment of William Montgomery as Director of Business Development, and Maribel Montero Cowell as Senior Business Development Manager. “Compliance and regulatory pressures are raising the profile of operational risk management amongst funds” said Joost Lobler, Managing Director Business Development for Europe, Middle East and Asia. “A growing number of alternative managers are seeking a more full service offering, especially middle office services, in order to demonstrate to their investors that their systems, controls and governance are effective. As a result we see an increased interest in our services, and have decided to invest further in business development.” Based in the firm’s London office, Montgomery and Montero Cowell will both report to Lobler. Montgomery brings 15 years experience in global fund administration to Butterfield Fulcrum, most recently serving as Vice President for JPMorgan Hedge Fund Services. He has also held roles in Daiwa Securities and PFPC International. “I am excited to be joining a top five independent administrator that has the knowledge and experience to meet current fund requirements.” said Montgomery.

The International Centre for Financial Regulation has announced the appointment of Nicole Hergarten as Director of Training with immediate effect. Commenting on the appointment, Barbara Ridpath, Chief Executive of the ICFR said, “Nicole has an excellent understanding of educational issues which further adds to the expertise of our growing team. The current crisis has demonstrated the ongoing need for training on regulation, compliance and risk management. One of the ICFR’s top priorities is to help financial professionals and regulators to access training that suits their needs.” Hergarten joins the ICFR from McKinsey & Company were she most recently held the post of practice manager at the Capital Markets and Investment Banking division. Prior to joining McKinsey & Co, she was Executive Director of Goldman Sachs FICC from 2000 and before that served as Executive Director at CIBC World Markets. In addition Hergarten has several years of consultancy experience with financial institutions across the Asia Pacific region, including two years with a leading e-learning provider for financial products in Hong Kong.

Tim Steer will join the Artemis multi-cap investment team at the end of June 2009. He will be joined by his colleague Stephen Yiu. Based in the London office, his prime responsibility will be as the appointed manager of the Artemis UK Growth Fund. He will assume this responsibility following a short period of familiarisation. The current manager, Adrian Paterson, will return to his investment trust roots by joining John Dodd managing the Artemis Alpha Trust plc – Artemis’ “best ideas” investment trust. Additionally, Steer will manage a UK Hedge Fund, the details of which will become available once he has joined the company. Commenting upon the announcements, Mark Tyndall, CEO of Artemis, said: “I am delighted that Tim is joining us. His pragmatic and flexible approach to investing will provide benefits for clients as well as an additional intellectual input to the multi-cap team.”

Armajaro Asset Management has announced the appointment of Michel Danechi to manage a new emerging markets hedge fund. Danechi was previously the head of the emerging markets desk at Lehman Brothers International (Europe) and has over 15 years experience in trading emerging markets. Prior to joining Lehman Brothers, Danechi was Head of the London Office and Head of EMEA Equity Trading at CA-IB International Markets (part of Bank Austria Creditanstalt) where he was responsible for trading equities and derivatives. Additionally, Danechi was in charge of pricing, structuring and trading of EMEA equity derivatives for investors and corporates. Commenting on Danechi’s appointment and the launch of the Armajaro Emerging Markets Fund, Richard Gower, Chief Executive Officer, Armajaro Asset Management, said: “We are extremely pleased that Michel has joined Armajaro. He is a highly skilled trader and has successfully navigated the turbulent environment in emerging markets since 1994. The forthcoming launch of the Armajaro Emerging Markets Fund expands our fund range to combine emerging markets trading with a macro-based strategy that has an equity derivatives bias. In combining the commodity expertise of Armajaro Asset Management with the emerging markets knowledge of an investment professional of Michel’s calibre, we believe the Armajaro Emerging Markets Fund offers investors a unique and exciting investment opportunity.”