BENELUX- Fortis Investment Management has appointed Patrick Van de Steen as head of marketing. Van de Steen assumes global responsibility for the marketing division, made up of over 70 staff worldwide, and will be based in Brussels.

In the newly created role, Van de Steen will be responsible for product development, brand management, communications and fund secretariat, and will report to CEO, Richard Wohanka.

Prior to joining FIM, Van de Steen was head of continental European retail and acting head of hedge funds at Gartmore.

FIM has also appointed Jacques Joakimides as head of its newly established convertibles investment centre in Paris. Says FIM: “convertibles have more than proved their worth as an asset class over the past five to 10 years. We intend to make this one of our core competencies, and expect this product to be increasingly employed in the portfolios of our institutional and retail client bases.”

Joakimides will manage a team of two, and reports to group CIO, William de Vijlder. Joakimides joins from Banque d’Orsay.

Having recently established new investment centres and restructured the company, Fortis Investment Management appears to be making a big push to expand its operations. FIM has also applied to the Chinese authorities for authorisation to establish a sino-foreign fund management company. If the venture is agreed the company will be jointly owned by FIM and its partner Haitong Securities, a Chinese securities firm.

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