EUROPE – Gerrit Van Gorp, former senior director and head of credit derivatives at Dow Jones Indexes, has been appointed by Pictet Asset Management to be its new head of business development for Northern Europe.

Van Gorp, 35, started at the institutional asset manager last week and will target the Dutch and Nordic markets.
He has taken over the position from Jonathan Hayes, who left in August 2004 to join Credit Suisse Asset Management.

Van Gorp will be report to chief marketing officer Rod Hearn, who left the position vacant since last year because he was “particularly picky” about Hayes’ replacement.

“Gerrit has an excellent track record in business development, and having an individual of his high calibre will enable us to build on our existing client base in the Northern European markets,” said Hearn.

“We are seeing strong demand for specialist products where Pictet has expertise, such as emerging markets equity and debt, Japanese and Asian equity and European fixed income.”

He added that Van Gorp would also add a different dimension to Pictet as his track record has not been solely in the pensions arena.

With more than 13 years experience in institutional sales and marketing, Van Gorp started his career at UBS in 1992, and also held senior positions at Merrill Lynch and TradeWebb.

Pictet, which celebrates its 200th anniversary this year, manages more than £36bn (€52.8bn) in assets.