Kames Capital has doubled its investment specialist team with two hires from Aberdeen Standard Investments brought on board to market its fixed income range, which has recently lost a raft of high-profile fund managers.
Jill Shaw (pictured) and Thomas Dickson both come from Aberdeen Standard Investments and have become senior investment specialist and investment specialist respectively. In December, Kames recruited another Aberdeen Standard Investments fixed income hire, Laurent Frings, to head up its credit research operation.
The pair joins months after four fund managers, including Stephen Snowden and David Ennett, defected to Artemis. Just over a year earlier, in August 2017, David Roberts and Philip Milburn exited to join Liontrust.
Adrian Hull, who heads the fixed income team, said the duo will strengthen their relationships with wholesale and institutional investors.
Shaw and Dickson will be based in Edinburgh.
Kames looks beyond fund managers and analysts
Willis Owens head of person investing Adrian Lowcock said: “This is an interesting sign as it means that Kames have recognised the impact of the recent departures and that they needed to do more than just replace the high-profile fund managers and analysts. It also means they are clearly happy with the team and the process as they want to continue to promote it to IFAs, etc.”
In January, it hired Bjorn Norrman from Fitch Ratings to become a credit research analyst, the second research analyst hire after Frings, although it has still not hired replacement managers.
Shaw was most recently head of strategic engagement for Asia Pacific at Aberdeen Standard Investments although she previously worked at Kames when it was Aegon Asset Management.
Dickson promoted Aberdeen Standard Investments’ fixed income range.
