Hedge funds look for marketing staff

Demand for marketing specialists at fund managers is increasing. With the outlook improving after a poor performance by many funds last year their services are doubly necessary, both to attract new clients and persuade existing ones to stay.

Chris Manfield, a consultant at Odgers Ray and Berndtson, a recruitment firm, said in the past few months demand for marketers has been much higher than demand for money managers: 'Fund management is becoming more competitive and funds are looking to raise more money. A lot of funds are looking for new marketing staff.'

Growing hedge funds in particular need new sales and marketing people, said Manfield. 'When hedge funds exceed a threshold of about $500m under management, the dynamics of the business change: Instead of being small operations relying on capital introduction services offered by prime brokers to raise money, they need their own marketing people in house.'

Manfield said standard funds everywhere such as Mellon, Artemis, Standard Life, Lazard, Lion Trust, Martin Currie, Scottish Widows and Fidelity, had recruited marketing staff this year.

Ross Leckie, head of marketing at Martin Currie, said that this month the company hired Derek Angus from Investec as director of intermediary sales. It is looking for two other marketing staff in the UK and hired a marketer in the US earlier this year.

Marketing and sales staff play an increasingly technical role, he said. 'Marketers need to be able to explain the risks that underlie returns that are 3% above the index. To do that, they need to understand the products and explain them with conviction. These are pretty specialised people.'

Samantha Donald, head of asset management at the search firm Shepherd Little, said: 'Last year people looked at their budgets and decided to hold fire on hiring new marketing people. This year, most people are looking to hire.'

Russell Adam, a consultant at the search firm Adam Grant, said there is a need for technical marketing staff in fixed income who can talk both to investors and to investment consultants about concepts such as risk management. The need is driven by the increasing complexity of products. He said: 'Investment banks have very technically oriented sales people and fund managers are beginning to realise they need them too.'

Adam said the profile of the ideal candidate has changed. Marketing roles used to revolve around taking consultants out to lunch. They now require a detailed understanding of products such as credit derivatives.

While marketing positions were traditionally occupied by former fund managers en route to retirement, they are now often taken by people with less experience: 'Technical vacancies are often filled by who have spent five to seven years as portfolio managers or buyside analysts. It is hard to find good people to fill these roles.'

Adam said technical marketers with five to seven years' experience can expect a salary of 65,000 to 85,000, plus a bonus of up to 100%. This compares favourably to more generalist marketing staff. Manfield said someone with five years' generalist experience can expect a salary of 50,000 to 60,000.