Movers & shakers: April 13

UBS Global Asset Management has appointed Oliver Bilal as head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Mr Bilal, who joins from Pioneer Investments, will take up the role of Emea regional head in May. He replaces Andreas Schlatter, who will focus on his role as head of distribution for UBS GAM.

TIAA-CREF, the $866bn US financial services provider, is expanding its fixed income capabilities with the launch of Churchill Asset Management, a subsidiary focused on senior loan investments. Ken Kencel will act as Churchill’s president and chief executive along with George Kurteson as head of underwriting and portfolio management and Randy Schwimmer as head of origination and capital markets. All three previously worked together at Carlyle, the private equity group. They will be joined by Alastair Merrick who takes the twin role of chief financial officer and chief administrative officer after moving from HIG Capital, a private equity manager.

William Blair, the Chicago-based investment bank and asset manager, has hired Gordon Strachan as a senior client relations manager, based in London. Mr Strachan was previously at Fidelity Worldwide Investment.

TCW, the $175bn Los Angeles-based asset manager, has hired Jonathan Botts as regional director in retail distribution and marketing for southern California, Arizona, Hawaii and Las Vegas. Mr Botts joins from American Funds, part of Capital Group.

David Barron has moved to Legal & General Investment Management America as a senior portfolio manager, from Northern Trust. LGIMA is keen to expand its $59bn US indexing business with the launch of pooled funds later this year.

LGIM has also made two hires for its fixed income emerging markets team in London. Philip Meier joins as a portfolio Manager from Axa Investment Managers while John Gray takes on the role of credit analyst after moving from the Royal Bank of Scotland.

JPMorgan Asset Management has promoted Patrick Beuret to country head for Switzerland, replacing Philipp Pfenniger who moves to a role as a senior sales executive. Peter Leffler has also joined the Swiss funds team as a senior sales executive after moving from Swiss & Global Asset Management.

Cardano has appointed Michaël De Lathauwer as co-chief executive alongside Theo Kocken, founder of the investment consultancy. Mr De Lathauwer is an ex-Goldman Sachs partner who was latterly responsible for the GS pension and insurance solutions group.

OFI Asset Management, the Paris-based fund house, has poached a team of five equity specialists from Amundi to create a new equity and convertibles investment unit. Eric Turjeman, previously deputy global head of equities at Amundi, will lead the team of four portfolio managers: Olivier Baduel, Beryl Bouvier Di Nota, Corinne Martin and Jean-Charles Naudin.

OFI has also hired Corinne Ostertag as managing director of OFI Luxembourg from Raiffeisen Capital Management.

Hugh Mullan, a former UK chief executive of Fidelity Worldwide Investment, has taken up a role as non-executive director at Multrees Investor Services, a provider of custody and reporting services for wealth managers and family offices.