Gam Investments head of UK distribution Douglas Branson has left the firm to join long-only and alternatives boutique Algebris Investments, Portfolio Adviser has learned.
Branson (pictured) started his role as head of business development at Algebris Investments on Wednesday. He left Gam in May after 16 years in a number of sales roles.
He will be based in London tasked with developing Algebris’s presence and reach in new and existing markets, covering products, client support and marketing.
Branson joined Gam in 2004 as a client director of UK private clients and managed portfolios before moving into UK mutual funds and institutional sales. He then became regional UK sales head and head of UK regional distribution before moving to head of UK distribution in 2017, gaining board and management committee level experience.
Before Gam, he was a portfolio manager at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.
Algebris is an independent global active asset management company with $13bn (£10.4bn) of assets across global equity and credit markets. It also invests in non-performing loans predominantly secured by residential real estate assets in Italy.
It was founded in 2006 by chief executive Davide Serra and has offices in London, Milan, Dublin, Luxembourg, Boston, Singapore, and Tokyo.
Algebris deputy CEO Alex Lasagna said: “Douglas has broad experience in the asset management industry, leading numerous strategic initiatives throughout his career. This dovetails well with the expertise we already have in-house and we are pleased to have attracted someone with his wealth of industry knowledge to the company.”
Branson said: “I am excited about the opportunity to join Algebris, a firm that invests alongside its clients to provide diversified investment strategies to generate consistent long-term returns and income for investors.”
Gam is yet to name a successor for Branson. The firm’s UK sales force continues to operate through head of UK key accounts David Shanks and client director Sean Cooney.
In April Gam announced an “accelerated its efficiency program” to shore up CHF 65m (£54m) of total cost reductions for 2020. This included plans to reduce its headcount to 680 full-time employees by the end of the year, down from 817 at the end of 2019.
The firm had already cut 10% of its workforce in 2019 as CEO Peter Sanderson’s predecessor David Jacob initiated a massive overhaul of the business.
Last month, Gam announced a £350m hit in H1 2020 mainly due to an impairment charge from when it was taken over more than 15 years ago by Julius Baer in 2005 and UBS in 1999.
