UK - Schroders has appointed Russell Investment Group’s Derek Doupe to the new role of head of business development for its fund of hedge funds business.

It also named Insight Investments’ Richard Robinson head of charities.

Doupe, who starts at the end of July, will report to Richard Horlick, head of investments.

“We are delighted that Derek will be joining our fund of hedge funds business. This is a business which is performing strongly and is expanding to meet the increased demands from institutional and retail investors,” Horlick said.

Doupe will work with John Parkin, chief investment officer of the fund of hedge funds business, which has $800 million (€646.3 millions) under management invested in three ‘blue’ products. These are: Blue Mountain, Blue Sea and Blue Star.

Russell’s spokeswoman, Gemma Lawrence, was not immediately available for comment.

Robinson, due to start in November, will run Schroders’ charities and foundations business in the UK. Before joining Schroders, Robinson was director of business partnerships at Insight. Insight’s press office told IPE that Robinson will stay with the company until the end of September and that no successor has been yet appointed.

The asset manager has also announced that Cambridgeshire County Council has awarded it an 85 million-pound real estate brief, 25 million pounds of which have been diverted from the local authority’s 340 million-pound multi-asset mandate, already managed by Schroders.

The mandate comes as the local authority’s investment panel decided to increase its exposure to the asset class from six per cent to 10%.