Ross will join from Alliance Bernstein on 2 September and will report to chief investment officer Marino Valensise.
Based in London, he will be responsible for overseeing the investment process for existing products as well as developing, implementing and reviewing the processes for the group’s suite of new products.
Ross has been at Alliance Bernstein since 2001. Since 2009 he was head of senior portfolio managers, global growth, and prior to that he was European head of alternative investments developing the group’s multi-asset product offering.
Before Alliance Bernstein he worked as a research analyst at James Capel and subsequently ABN Amro.
Valensise said: “This has been an exciting time for Barings as we continue to develop innovative products in new investment areas, such as the Frontier Markets and the Emerging Market Corporate Debt funds. These products play on our existing established skillset in emerging markets and specialist fixed income investing.
“Alongside overseeing the investment process for existing products, this role has been created to develop, implement and regularly review the investment processes for the suite of new products. James’ vast previous experience across both the buy-side and the sell-side makes him very well-placed to carry out this role successfully.”
In addition, Barings has appointed Peter Curry to the role of assistant director for international institutional sales.
He will be based in London, reporting to head of international sales and business development Andrew Benton.
Curry joins from Nomura Asset Management where he was business development director.