Gavin Rochussen, former CEO of JO Hambro Capital Management, kicked off the year of movements with the announcement he was to become CEO of Polar Capital from July. After leaving his post at JOHCM in September, he succeeded Tim Woolley at Polar at a time when top-performing fund duo Georgina Hamilton and George Godber joined the team. The group also announced it was on an recruitment drive for more fund management teams.
Late in January it was announced former Newton Investment Management chief executive Helena Morrissey was joining Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) as head of personal investing. Taking up her role on 1 May, she also joined LGIM’s board. Her role involves leading the firm's D2C business and building LGIM's direct ties with investors, particularly through mobile and robo-advice. Morrissey was later a judge at Investment Week’s Women In Investment Awards 2017.
February saw the announcement St James's Place chief executive officer David Bellamy will step down at the end of 2017 after 11 years in the role. He had spent 26 years at the firm and will remain with the group in an advisory capacity and will take on the role of non-executive chairman for its new international operations. Andrew Croft, currently chief financial officer,, will be promoted to CEO.
In March, it was announced Christine Johnson, head of fixed income at Old Mutual Global Investors, was to depart the firm after seven years following a two-year strategic review of the fixed income team. Johnson had reduced her fund management duties over the previous two years to focus on team management but OMGI said it had been mutually agreed with Johnson the role of head of fixed income was no longer required.
Meanwhile, earlier that month the firm also announced a reshuffle of its European equities desk with fund manager Kevin Lilley leaving as his two funds were taken over by Ian Ormiston and Liam Nunn.
In an exclusive Investment Week story, it was revealed Matt Evans, co-manager of the Threadneedle UK Smaller Companies and UK Mid 250 funds, was to join Investec AM to manage its £340m UK Smaller Companies fund, which became part of the group's Quality range. Evans joined his former Threadneedle colleagues Simon Brazier and Blake Hutchins to become the 20th member of the Investec Quality Team, which is led by Brazier and Clyde Rossouw.
The Threadneedle UK Smaller Companies fund is now run by James Thorne.
Early in the summer J.P. Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) said chief market strategist Stephanie Flanders will leave the company later in the year to lead a new economics desk at Bloomberg. The former journalist has worked at JPMAM since 2013, covering UK and European markets, but will leave her role in October to return to journalism. Karen Ward was later appointed to replace her as chief market strategist for UK and Europe. Based in London, she is chair of the council of economic advisers for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which involves advising on fiscal strategy and Brexit.
Alex Hoctor-Duncan, head of BlackRock's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) retail business, decided to leave the firm, having first joined in 1997. In July, the group said Hoctor-Duncan will take a break before exploring future career opportunities while the head of EMEA retail post was taken over by co-head of ETF Sales EMEA Michael Gruener.
In July, former chief investment officer of TD Direct Investing, Michelle McGrade joined Virgin Money as its new CIO, where she has begun building out its investment proposition. McGrade left TD Direct Investing in early June after the firm was acquired by Interactive Investor. She had been at TD Direct since March 2015, having previously worked as a consultant for Mediolanum Asset Management and held a number of other roles in the investment industry.
In the summer, Liontrust Asset Management continued its fund management hiring spree by appointing fixed income specialists David Roberts and Phil Milburn from Kames Capital, who will join the firm early next year. The group intends to launch Strategic Bond, High Yield Bond and Absolute Return Bond funds, subject to appropriate regulatory approvals once the duo joins its Edinburgh office early next year. As a result, Stephen Snowden and Adrian Hull took over as co-heads of fixed income at Kames.
After over a year away from fund management former Artemis income manager Adrian Gosden joined GAM in September. He left Artemis in June last year after spending 13 years the managing the Income fund alongside Adrian Frost and Nick Shenton, both of whom continue to run the fund, and the High Income fund, which he managed with Alex Ralph.
GAM launched the UK Equity Income fund for Gosden in November, with the manager making his commitment to the firm by saying: "This is going to be it for me and you will not see me at another firm in two years' time mending their income fund."
Janus Henderson confirmed the team had been through a restructuring following the merger of Janus Capital and Henderson Global Investors, and that head of global credit Stephen Thariyan would be leaving the firm next March.
Meanwhile, Columbia Threadneedle replaced Cielinski by promoting his deputy Colin Lundgren, who has been with the firm for 31 years.
In October, it was announced Baillie Gifford's Sarah Whitley, partner and head of the Japanese Equities team, as well as partners within the fixed income area, Stephen Rodger and Ken Barker, are to step down from the partnership on 30 April 2018.
Whitley is the longest standing partner within Baillie Gifford, having spent 37 years with the firm, and has managed the Baillie Gifford Japan trust since 2001.
Following her retirement Matthew Brett will take over as lead portfolio manager, supported by Praveen Kumar as deputy portfolio manager.
Whitley was recognised at two award ceremonies run by Investment Week this year: at the Investment Company of the Year Awards she was awarded Outstanding Industry Contribution accolade and at the inaugural Women In Investment Awards she was bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
In October, another announcement from GAM said Andrew Green is set to retire from portfolio management after 34 years running the GAM UK Diversified and Global Diversified funds.
From January 2018 Green (pictured), one of the UK's longest serving fund managers, will step down but continue to manage select mandates and provide support to GAM's equity teams in a new role as director of global equities strategy.
The management of the UK Diversified fund will be taken over by Chris Morrison and Adrian Gosden, the latter having joined in September 2017 while Ali Miremadi, who joined GAM in 2016 from THS Partners, will take over management of the Global Diversified fund.
Meanwhile, Asim Rahman, who worked alongside Bennett as co-manager on the £2.3bn Henderson European Selected Opportunities, £550 Henderson European Focus and €4.4bn Henderson Gartmore Continental European funds will also leave the firm in January.
As a result, ratings agency Morningstar have put the three funds under review.
In the summer, Stephen Message, former manager of the Old Mutual UK Equity Income fund who left in December 2016, joined L&G Investment Management to take over the management of LGIM's £1bn UK income range and run the L&G UK Equity Income fund. Message (pictured) joined L&G Investment Management (LGIM) in August as a fund manager in the global income team.
LGIM also named him manager of the £268m UK Equity Income fund, while he also oversees the entire UK Income range, which has £1bn in AUM.
In November, Newton Investment Management made a raft of changes to the team structure across a number of funds, as investment leader, UK equities Christopher Metcalfe plans to retire at the end of the year.
Metcalfe runs the £1.7bn Newton UK Income and £421m UK Opportunities funds, which will be run from 1 January 2018 by managers led by Simon Nichols, head of the UK equity team. He has worked alongside Metcalfe for over ten years.
Nichols will be supported on these funds and the UK Equity fund by Emma Mogford, manager of the firm's Continental European fund, and Chris Smith, who joined the UK equities team in 2016.
Metcalfe was also in charge of the firm's £1.7bn Multi-Asset Growth fund, which will now be run by manager Paul Flood.
Former Aviva Investors multi-asset manager Nick Samouilhan joined T. Rowe Price as a solutions strategist in Q4. Working alongside Yoram Lustig, head of multi-asset solutions EMEA, Samouilhan will support the group in its expansion of its multi-asset business globally. Samouilhan joined Aviva Investors in 2010 and was a manager of the firm's risk-targeted multi-asset funds. This role has since been taken over by Gavin Counsell, who has been with Aviva Investors for over five years managing multi-asset funds, while the firm also hired hired Sunil Krishnan from Santander AM as head of multi-asset funds.
Investment Week takes a look at the key industry moves from 2017 including former Kames Capital bond duo Phil Milburn and David Roberts joining Liontrust, to desk reshuffles at Old Mutual Global Investors.
We have also seen European equity team members leave Janus Henderson for Schroders, Neptune's Holly Cassell take a sabbatical and Rod Aldridge leave after a long career at Barings to join Cornelian in Edinburgh.