Adrian Lee & Partners Adds Two

Active asset and currency manager Adrian Lee & Partners has bolstered its ranks with two senior hires to its portfolio management and marketing teams.

The firm says the hire of Stephen Marsh as senior portfolio manager in London and JoAnne Svendsgaard as head of business development for North America, follow recent mandate wins from international institutional investors which has brought the firm’s assets under management to over $18 billion.

“In today’s uncertain economic conditions, we are seeing increasing demand from institutional investors who want to manage their currency risk while generating returns through active currency management,” says Adrian Lee, president and CIO of AL&P. “We have won over $2 billion in new mandates in the past 12 months, our performance has been excellent.

“The appointments of Stephen and JoAnne will help ensure our business is a continued success in delivering value added for existing clients and attracting new ones,” he continues. “They bring decades of experience in portfolio management and business development that will help enhance our offerings and growth potential.”

As a senior member of the portfolio management team based in London, Marsh will focus on managing and servicing AL&P’s growing currency business. He joins from almost eight years at T. Rowe Price in London where he was a portfolio specialist and investment director. Prior to that, he spent nine years at SEI Investments, where he was head of fixed income (Europe) and portfolio manager.

Based in California, Svendsgaard is tasked with expanding AL&P’s client-base and driving AUM growth in North America. She brings with her over 20 years of experience in marketing currency solutions to institutional clients with a successful track record of raising funds from endowments, foundations, public and corporate pension funds. Before joining AL&P, she was EVP business development at Millennium Global Investments for almost 10 years, prior to which she spent three years at FX Concepts in a similar role.

“I am excited to join AL&P and to support the portfolio management team in delivering outstanding performance to our clients,” says Marsh. “This is an extraordinary team with impressive record of providing innovative solutions to clients and a long history of positive performance.”

Svendsgaard adds, “I am delighted to join AL&P at a time when more institutional investors are seeking sophisticated investment solutions in currency management, and I believe the firm is well positioned to meet this increasing demand as a leading active currency manager.”