As part of the new hires, the company has created European Business Development team to form new institutional relationships for the firm, which two of the five new staff will contribute to.
The expanded role as head of client and consultant relations, EMEA, will be taken on by Chris Gower, who joined last year. He will continue to report to Kanesh Lakhani, head of distribution for EMEA and global consultant relationships.
Jimmy Burns takes on the role of senior relationships manager. Based in Edinburgh, he begins his new position in May. Previously, he was head of European equities of the Stewart Ivory Team at the firm.
The newly created role of head of institutional business development Europe has been appointed to Denise Saber. Based in London, she will be responsible for building and developing relationships with key asset owners in Europe, reporting to Lakhani. She joins the firm in mid-April.
Finally, Frank Glennon will take up a newly created role of European business development manager, based in London. He joins in the first week of May from Falcon Money Management, also based in London. Prior to this, he worked at Colonial First State in Sydney, Australia.
Glennon and Saber will join Alex Mackenzie-Smith in the European Business Development team.
“These hires build upon our continuing efforts to broaden and deepen our coverage of institutional asset owners and asset consultants in Europe,” Lakhani said.
In January, First State made a number of significant hires to fill newly created roles in its distribution team, in an effort to support its ongoing business growth in the EMEA region.