UK- Morley Fund Management has hired Bill Baker to run a range of UK pooled and segregated pension funds. Baker joins as a senior member of the 11-strong UK equities team in September and will report to Mike Bishop, head of pan European equities.

Baker was until recently Schroder’s head of UK equities focusing on the management of UK pension funds. Along with experience at Schroders, Baker spent 10 years at Mercury AM, now Merrill Lynch.

Baker’s appointment is the latest in Morley’s recent recruitment drive. Rothschild Asset Management’s former head of fixed income Ceris Williams is joining as head of sovereign bonds in September.

Morley has also poached Camilla Reeves from Lombard Odier, where she worked in the European small and mid cap team, as a pan European small cap fund manager. She joins next month.

Paula Allen, a north American equities manager at Deutsche AM joined recently as a global themes fund manager, while Dexia BIL’s head of asset management Philip Manduca is to oversee the group’s new e3.2bn alternative investment division.

Morley manages £107bn of which £31.9bn is run by the UK equities team.