EUROPE – Deutsche Asset Management says its chief investment officer for Europe and Asia-Pacific, Karl Sternberg, is to leave at the end of August.

The second-largest manager of European pension assets said in a statement that Sternberg, 35, “will be taking some time off before making a decision on his future plans”. He would be replaced by Peter Harrison, 38, who was previously at J P Morgan Fleming Asset Management.

"We would like to thank Karl for his many contributions to our organisation, most notably his part in the re-engineering of our global investment platform," the statement said.

DeAM’s European chief executive Paul Manduca did not return a call seeking more information and spokesman Mark Pursey declined to elaborate on the reasons for Sternberg’s departure. Sternberg was not immediately contactable.

Sternberg joined DeAM in 1992 and held a series of senior roles before becoming European CIO in 2002. He is the latest high-profile European executive to leave DeAM this year, following the departure of former German bond chief Joerg Sihler and corporate pensions head Klaus Mössle.

Earlier this year DeAM revamped its UK business into seven “business streams”.

Harrison, whom DeAM said was most recently CIO of global equities and multi-assets at J P Morgan Fleming Asset Management, will report to Manduca and his Asia-Pacific counterpart James Goulding. He’ll be based in London.

He will be “responsible for investment strategy across the Europe and Asia Pacific regions and the key task of focusing DeAM's investment teams on delivering strong performance”.

"I am delighted that Peter Harrison is joining us to strengthen further our global investment platform at Deutsche Asset Management," Manduca said.

"As ever, our key focus remains on performance for our clients and Peter's appointment is designed to improve our ability to generate consistent and outstanding returns".