NETHERLANDS - Investment consultancy firm Hewitt Associates' Dutch arm has lost senior consultants Dick van den Oever and Eddy Bannet.

Bannet, investment consulting practice leader for Hewitt in Amsterdam, left on Friday last week.

Van den Oever, who joined the firm's Amsterdam office as senior consultant in 2002, left early last month to take over Berckheijde Vastgoed Beleggingen together with Wiegert van der Meij, focusing on real estate investments in future also for institutional investors.

Hewitt spokesman Michiel Cleij said Bannet wanted to change direction as "in his view his personal ambitions did not fully agree with Hewitt's international ambitions, he is not re-orientating himself in order to see which player does fit the most with his personal ambitions".

Cleij stresses though that both Van den Oever and Bannet left the firm amicably, and if necessary the firm will even call upon the two former employees.

The firm has not appointed successors yet but will do if the right person comes along.

"Because we have an international network, there is no acute need for successors," says Cleij. He explained that the firm's Dutch investment team practice is linked with its European and Global practices.