Whitbread will report to Hayes Miller, head of multi asset for North America and joins Barings from Boston-based Fundquest Incorporated.
At Fundquest he was a portfolio manager with asset allocation responsibilities and prior to this he was a senior portfolio adviser with Pyramis Global Advisers.
The Barings multi-asset team was formed in 2002 and now has eight portfolio managers and two analysts managing £5.7bn of assets, as at 31 October.
