Gartmore has appointed John Bennett, investment director at GAM, as senior portfolio manager, European equities.

Bennett has a 20-year track record of managing Continental and pan European equities and will join from GAM where he has spent the last 16 years. He will report to Dominic Rossi, Gartmore's chief investment officer.
 
At GAM Bennett manages the GAM Star Continental European Equity Fund and the GAM Star European Equity Fund.
         
At Gartmore he will assume lead management responsibility for the Gartmore European Select Opportunities and Gartmore SICAV Continental European Funds. The funds' current managers, Roger Guy and Guillaume Rambourg, remain fully committed to the management of these funds until Bennett's arrival, at which point they will concentrate on their growing list of alternative and institutional mandates. These include three hedge funds (Capella, Tucana, and Acamar), two recently launched European Absolute Return Mutual Funds, the Gartmore European Investment Trust and several institutional mandates. 

Bennett is expected to start at Gartmore in early 2010.
 
He has agreed to remain at GAM and will continue to manage the various GAM funds and mandates for which he is responsible until the end of 2009. During this period GAM will work closely with its clients to agree a longer-term arrangement that meets their investment requirements.

Guy says: 'John is a great fund manager. He follows a blended investment process focused on large-cap stocks similar to the process Guillaume and I use. He has a wealth of experience and a long standing track record of success which will expand and diversify our European Equity capabilities. I look forward to working with John and am delighted that he has decided to join us.'