KB Investment Trust Management in South Korea has hired Paul Armstrong for a new role of CIO. Armstrong has been an independent asset management consultant in Hong Kong for the past four years, working for Fidelity Investments as a consultant investment director, among others. He has just moved to Seoul to start his new job.

The CIO role has been created to provide coordination and strategy to KB ITM’s existing equities and fixed-income investment teams, explains Garry Pieters, executive vice president of the W9.1 trillion ($7.7 billion) fund management firm, a joint venture between Kookmin Bank and ING Investment Managers.

Kim Yong-il manages the equities investment team, while fixed income is run by Lim Kwong-taek (who is also ex-ING).

"The Korean way is to have fund management stars, while ING favours a team approach," Pieters says. "Paul isn't going to take over the role of fund manager, rather he's going to provide an overall vision that we needed. The three jobs are clearly segregated."

Armstrong has over 30 years of investment experience, much of it in Asia. Before acting as a consultant, he served as investment director at Jardine Fleming from 1994 to 1998, and as CIO at HSBC Asset Management from 1990 to 1994. Prior to that he was in London, working at County Natwest, Bank of America and Hambros Bank, where he got his start in 1970.