Whitestone joins the firm from UBS, where he was head of the UK small/mid cap sales desk. He has also worked in equity sales at Noble & Co, and as a strategy consultant at Accenture.
He will report to Richard Plackett, head of the UK small/mid cap team, providing research for all fund managers but primarily for the BlackRock UK Emerging Companies Hedge Fund which is co-managed by Plackett and Ralph Cox.
The £0.9bn fund, launched in May 2004, targets exposure to small and mid-cap UK companies and also to large cap companies while limiting correlation with the broad UK equity market.
The team has a total £4.8bn under management, including the £1.9bn BlackRock UK Special Situations Fund. Plackett co-manages the fund with Roland Arnold, who was appointed co-manager in July last year. Its performance over the past year is shown in the graph.
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Top 10 fund holdings include HSBC, Royal Dutch Shell and Unilever, and in terms of sector weightings, basic materials account for the largest proportion of total assets.
