IAM Funds hires former UBS investment specialist as chief

Income Asset Management Group has hired former UBS investment specialist Jonathan Baird to lead its asset management business, IAM Funds.

Baird will also sit on the board of the group's first incubation fund manager Fortlake Asset Management as an executive director joining former UBS colleague, Fortlake founder Christian Baylis.

IAM Group chief executive, Jon Lechte said the new hire supports the firm's rapid growth in bonds, treasury management, and asset management.

Further, he said Baird's appointment comes at a critical time as the firm beds down its investment with Tactical Global Management. Then, IAM will hold a 25 percent stake in both Fortlake and TGM which specialises in equities and currencies.

Baird was most recently head of client services and marketing for Australia and New Zealand at Western Asset Management. Before that he held senior roles with UBS and Zenith Investment Partners.

"The partnership between Fortlake and IAM is a fast-growing and agile offering that caters to the current needs of sophisticated investors, with Fortlake's fixed interest funds already attracting worldwide attention," he said.

Preqin, the data provider, recently named the Fortlake Sigma Opportunities Fund as the top-performing fixed income strategy and number two overall within the Asia-Pacific credit hedge fund category for the 2021 first half.

"The nod from Preqin helped with sales and distribution channels setting us up with a pretty good starting point," added Bayliss.

The top-performing Fortlake fund returned 16.8 percent growth over the nine months to August.  Fortlake Real-Income Fund, posted a 7.31 percent return, and Fortlake Real-Higher Income Fund, posted a 10.86 percent return for the same period.