Liontrust has appointed GAM’s Mark Hawtin as head of global growth equities and placed GAM’s Jeremy Roberts as head of global distribution (ex UK), as the asset manager looks to build out its global equities proposition.
Hawtin (pictured right), who will join Liontrust in May, holds 37 years of experience in the industry, most recently as an investment director leading the global growth equity team for GAM.
While Hawtin has worked at GAM since 2008, he also spent time at Marshall Wace Asset Management as a portfolio manager and partner.
Liontrust made an attempt to acquire GAM in 2023, which was ultimately rejected by the Swiss asset manager’s shareholders.
See also: Liontrust’s Emily Barnard to become deputy manager of Edinburgh Investment Trust
In his new role, Hawtin will work alongside David Goodman, Kevin Kruczynski and Pieran Maru.
Meanwhile, Roberts will begin with Liontrust in April with a focus on growing distribution outside the UK. Bringing over 20 years of experience in the industry, he has served as global head of distribution for GAM and head of UK retail business at BlackRock.
Current global head of distribution Ian Chimes will remain responsible for distribution overall following the new appointments, a spokesperson for Liontrust confirmed to Portfolio Adviser.
The hires follow the promotion of Kristian Cook to UK head of distribution, which was announced in November.
John Ions, chief executive of Liontrust, said: “Mark Hawtin and his team are an important addition to Liontrust given the importance of global equities across the client base.
“Mark has a strong track record in managing long only and long/short equity funds at Marshall Wace and then GAM and further enhances our global capabilities.”
“Jeremy has successfully built global distribution and will be responsible for expanding our client relationships and partnerships in Continental Europe and South America,” Ions said.
Fund launch
In a trading update released this morning (17 January), the asset manager revealed plans to launch a new fund in the first quarter of this year.
The GF Pan-European Dynamic fund will be managed by Liontrust’s cashflow solution team.
The strategy will be managed using the same investment process as the £1.1bn European Dynamic Fund, which is the best-performing fund in the IA Europe ex-UK sector over five years.
Over that period, it has returned 103% compared to the sector average 51.8%, according to data from FE Fundinfo.
