Six new faces join County practice

County Investment Management has been on a hiring spree, with six new faces joining the group.

County Investment Management has been on a hiring spree, with six new faces joining the group.

Chief investment officer Nick Birrell says it is the "largest intake of new investment professionals that County has ever undertaken at one time".

A spokesperson for County says the appointments come as the group aims to beef up its product offerings in the wholesale market, intro-ducing corporate bond credit related products and a high yield prod-uct by year's end.

Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) senior staffer Melinda Cilento is set to take on the role of County's chief economist. She replaces Michael Karagianis, who has taken up a post with EquitiLink.

Cilento had been manager of the IMF unit responsible for consulting with government for reforms to the Australian financial system. Be-fore working with IMF, Cilento was stationed in Canberra, working with the Department of Treasury for nine years.

Meanwhile, Andy Yang has left Bankers Trust after seven years to also County as structured investments portfolio manager. The role will en-compass managing existing client accounts and liaising with County's investment solutions group in relation to new products.

Yang worked as a risk management adviser with BT Asia, and in per-formance research and product development for BT in Sydney. He also worked as a trustee of the BT Superannuation Fund.

Tony Edmonds is to take up the new role of senior credit manager within County's interest rate products group. Before joining County, Edmonds was vice-president and head of credit risk management for Australasia with JP Morgan.

County has added three new members to its active investment team.

Luke Sinclair has been appointed senior industrials analyst with the group. He comes to County from Jardine Fleming, where he was invest-ment manager responsible for Australian equity portfolios.

Also joining Sinclair in the industrial equities team is Silvio Gas-paret, who will take on the position of analyst and will work as part of County's active Australian equities team. He joins County from In-vesco Asset Management where he worked as an analyst.

Chistopher Thoms will join the group's property team as an investment manager. Thoms had been with ANZ Funds Management, where he worked as a portfolio manager in direct property.

County Investment Management is part of the National Australia Bank group and has $10.5 billion in funds under management.