Ignis Asset Management continues to bolster team

Our insight into recruitment within the Scottish fund management sector may have inadvertently overlooked the not insubstantial levels of hiring at Glasgow-based Ignis Asset Management this year.

The firm has been bolstering its institutional sales team as it prepares to make inroads into this market. The latest addition is Johan Rydqvist, who joins the European sales team to cover the Nordic region. This follows the recruitment of a 10-strong European distribution team.

It also hired Billie Croan as director, liquidity sales towards the tail end of January. He joins from Irish Life & Permanent.

Ignis has also made some key senior appointments this year, having recently unveiled Tim Roberts, formerly a partner at McKinsey & Co, as chief operating officer and Chris Fellingham as CIO, fixed income.

Fellingham has been given the task of developing Ignis's fixed income capabilities, and he joins from George Soros' London asset management business.

Ignis, which has 71bn in assets under management, has ambitions to grow its institutional market share and aims to break into the top five UK investment management houses.

Chris Samuel, chief executive of Ignis, says it has "ambitious plans and 2010 will be a year of significant investment in both building our investment capability and the Ignis brand."

Sadly, Ignis were unable to provide us with details about hiring plans going forward this year.