SWITZERLAND – Fidelity International says it is talking to headhunters about finding a replacement for Swiss institutional investment director Raoul van der Lugt.

Peter Lord, managing director of the firm’s Europe institutional group, told IPE that van der Lugt was returning to the US. A spokeswoman declined to say if he would be staying with the company.

Earlier Fidelity announced that it had hired Nick Baulch as a relationship director for the UK institutional client relationship team, reporting to senior investment director Peter Yarrow.

It said he joins from Deutsche Asset Management (now Aberdeen Asset Management) where he was responsible for segregated and large pooled clients.

“At Deutsche he led a team of three client directors who were primarily responsible for developing client relationships,” a statement said.

Yarrow added: “We are very pleased that Nick has joined Fidelity. His extensive knowledge of the UK market will add further resource to our existing team and our clients will benefit from his experience, gained over many years in the industry.”