Brennan appointed as Baring chairman

Baring Asset Management (BAM) has named its deputy chairman David Brennan as the successor to John Bolsover who is to retire from his post as chairman and chief executive in June.

Mr Bolsover, who has been with the group for 27 years and will be 55 when he leaves, said he had always intended to retire this year. "I will be sad to leave but we have planned this for some time," he said.

Mr Brennan, who has been with Barings for 14 years and has headed its investment management side since 1997, was appointed deputy chairman last year. He is to be replaced by Peter Walton, the former head of retail investment products at BAM's UK rival, Schroders.

Mr Bolsover, an economics and political science graduate of McGill University in Canada, became BAM's chief executive and chief investment officer in 1989 when Barings merged its domestic and international asset management operations. He was appointed chairman when ING, the Dutch financial services giant, took over Barings in 1995 after it collapsed with £800m of debts arising from illicit trades by Nick Leeson in Singapore. An associate of Mr Bolsover's said: "He has been there a long time, I imagine he has built up a pretty decent pension."

Mr Brennan, an Oxford law graduate, previously worked for Bankers Trust and has spent most of his career in Asia. He was appointed chief executive at BAM's investment management unit five years ago.

BAM had more than £24bn of funds under management at 31 December and employs a workforce of about 120 in London, New York and Asia.