2009 Hiring Trends: Institutional Sales

Hiring across all areas of Institutional Sales & Client Servicing was 58% lower from January to October 2009 than over the same period in 2008.

Hiring figures for October across Institutional Sales were significantly down (64%) on October 2008, continuing the decline in hiring across the Institutional Distribution space this year.

Overall, hires in this area for the first ten months of 2008 have been down 58% on the same period last year. This is the largest fall we have recorded in any segment of asset management - particularly when compared with 48% falls in both the Fixed Income and Equity Investing areas. But this is simply to bring overall hiring Distribution into line with trends for the investment teams.

Last year, Institutional Sales & Client Servicing was the one area which held up well: up until the end of August, hiring volumes for 2008 were actually up 10% over 2007. It was only after the collapse of Lehman Brothers that hiring fell off a cliff. Hence the fall this year has been relatively larger, as last year hiring held up reasonably well over the full 12 months.

What these figures do not show, however, is the recent pick-up in hiring in progress. Starting from July this year, there has been a relatively strong resumption of demand for Institutional Salespeople, with many firms kicking off retained searches. These positions will now be closing before the Christmas break, and the candidates will be turning up in their new positions over the first quarter of 2009. So we are expecting reported hiring volumes to pick up in early 2009.

We are also aware of a number of firms planning to add further headcount in the first quarter of 2010. This means that hiring activity in January and February is likely to pick up still further. Provided there are no market wobbles before the end of March, we would expect hiring activity to pick up substantially in the second quarter of 2010.

We feel there have been three key drivers to hiring this year:

• First of all, a number of UK houses, having brought in new management teams last year (hiring at the managerial level increased from 24% to 35% of hires last year), have been sorting out performance issues, restructuring and ‘up skilling’ their teams. Hence 39% of hires have been in the UK.

• Secondly, there have been a number of new entrants from the US and overseas, with firms deciding to develop a footprint in Europe on the basis that we are now at the bottom of the cycle and talent is both cheap and available.

• Thirdly, a number of Hedge Funds have also decided to break into the mainstream Institutional market. This has been encouraged partly by their loss of assets from the Fund of Funds channel, and partly by the investment mood in Europe which is moving towards a ‘barbell’ investing strategy, whereby a large chunk is allocated to index funds, with the other end of the barbell open to higher alpha strategies, including hedge funds.

These last two trends can be seen in the relatively large proportion of hires covering the whole Continent or EMEA region (18%, up from 10% in 2007), as firms build out smaller teams with a broad geographical responsibility.

The only other area where hiring has picked up has been in the Benelux region. Hiring in the Nordics, Central Europe and Middle East is still flat.

We expect next year that hiring in the UK will continue to grow, and we would also expect hiring in Central Europe – particularly Switzerland – to grow. This is because many firms had to shelve their hiring plans for Central Europe in mid 2008, and so these searches will probably be dusted off and re-started.

One final trend we have noticed is a move to a more defensive ‘asset servicing’ (ie: Client Relationship Management) stance, away from ‘asset gathering’ (ie: Direct Sales or Consultant relations) – with hiring of salespeople continuing to fall from historical levels of around 50% to around 43%, while hiring on the relationship management side has increased from historical levels of 16% to 23%.

We expect this trend to be reversed in 2010 as most firms gear up to a more bullish, asset gathering approach. Since sales is not a scalable activity, this means they will need more bums on seats.

So our prognosis is that hiring in Institutional Sales will recover more quickly than on the Investing side of the fence. That recovery has in fact already started, and will increase in strength in the first two quarters of 2010, as firms move to a more optimistic mind frame. Hence competition for seasoned salespeople will be strong, particularly in the UK and Central Europe and, to a lesser degree, in Northern Europe.

Key hiring Houses in 2009

Pioneer, Blackrock, Ignis and Schroders have all hired three people. A further 13 houses have hired two people.

In addition, there have been a number of significant senior hires, including:

In November:

• Roxanne Sargent joins Armajaro Asset Management as co-Head of Sales & Marketing.
• Stephen Wynne-Jones joins CoFunds as Head of Marketing Operations.
• John Rushen joins Hewitt Associates as Head of UK Investment Consulting.
• Gordon Phillips joins Scottish Widows Investment Partnership as interim Head of Distribution.
• Chris Yiannakou joins UBS Global Asset Management as Head of UK Consultant Relations.

In October:

• Max Nardulli joins Cheyne Capital Management as Head of International Sales & Distribution.
• Amna Karim joins Moore Capital Management as Head of Nordic Sales.
• Martin Harris joins Aegon Asset Management as Head of European Distribution.
• James Bowers joins Henderson Global Investors as Head of UK & Institutional Product.
• Fleming Campbell joins Threadneedle Investments as Head of Global Distribution.
• Dominik Issler joins Martin Currie as Head of Sales for Switzerland.

In September:

• Alistair Barrie joins Martin Currie as Global head of Hedge Fund Sales.
• Mirielle Andersson joins Northern Trust Advisors as head of Nordic Sales.
• Fredrik Wilkens joins Swedbank Robur as Head of Large Mandates for Sweden.

In July:

• Robert Hegt joins AXA Rosenberg Investment Management as Head of Institutional Sales for the EMEA region.
• Herwig Bogaerts joins Carmignac Gestion as Head of the Country for Belgium.
• Ian Lewis joins Liontrust Asset Management as Head of Institutional Clients.
• Jeroen van Rooij joins Robeco Asset Management as Head of Institutional Business for Benelux.
• Michael Baldinger joins Sustainable Asset Management as Head of Clients and Distribution based in Zurich.

In June:

• Rob Delfos joins Aegon Asset Management as Head of Institutional Marketing and Product Development.
• James du Boulay joins HIM Capital as Head of Sales and Marketing.
• Alex Fletcher joins KKR Private Equity Investors as Head of the European Client and Partner Group.
• Ian Fisher joins Pengana Capital as Head of Sales for Europe.
• Carl McAndrew joins Unigestion as Head of Sales.

In May:

• Mark Stanley joins Bedlam Asset Management as Head of UK Client Relations.
• Alex Ricchebuono joins Credit Suisse Asset Management as Head of Distribution in France & Italy.
• Rob Barrett joins Swisscanto Asset Management as Head of UK Institutional Sales.

In April:

• Jamal al-Naif joins Credit Suisse Asset Management as Head of Institutional Sales for the MENA region.
• Nick Spencer joins GAM as Head of UK Institutional Sales.
• Paul Graham joins Gartmore Investment Management as Head of Alternatives.
• Hugh Cutler joins Legal & General Investment Management as Head of Distribution.

In March:

• Emmanuel Delley joins ING Investment Management as Head of Institutional Sales for Switzerland.

In February:

• Jonathan May joins Aviva Investors as Head of Consultant Relations
• Niall Quinn joins Eaton Vance Management International as Head of EMEA
• Olaf John joins Insight Investments as Head of Institutional Sales for Europe.
• Peter Douvos joins Invesco Asset Management as Head of Consultant Relations.
• Polly Smith joins Tokio Marine Asset Management as Head of Sales for the EMEA region.

In January:

• Ben Whitfield joins Olympic Capital Management as Head of Sales for the UK and Northern Europe.
• Reinhard Mueller joins Pioneer Investments as Country Head of Switzerland.
• Stephen Holt joins Principal Global Investors as Head of UK Institutional Sales.

For more detailed information on the Institutional Sales and Client Servicing area, including hiring data and salary trends, as well as competitor team structures across the EMEA Region, please call Stuart Chilvers on 020 7183 8862

• Buy Side Institutional Sales Hiring Trends for 2009
  Click on the link for five charts showing hiring figures for Institutional Sales & Client Servicing in 2009

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