Andre Konstantinow is the new boss of Barclays UK Pension Fund.
Konstantinow has previously worked at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, where he was a senior investment manger controlling the European and emerging markets hedge fund managers, research and strategies. In 2000 he entered an alternative investments career when he became a Scheeweis Partners (now Alternative Investment Analytics) research analyst. Here he was a part of the designing of the Down Jones Hedge Fund indices.
He then joined and became co-portfolio manager of the fund of hedge funds business, managed by Coronation Fund Managers.
Discussing the decision Tony Broccardo, Chief Investment Officer of Barclays Pension Fund said: “Manager selection and asset allocation are two sides of the same coin and Andre’s addition to our integrated in-house team will enable us to enhance the speed and flexibility of our investment decision-making, and to react more rapidly to market conditions.”
Barclays PLC is ranked by Forbes Global 2000 (2008 list) as the 25th largest company in the world, and the fourth largest financial services provider in the world. Based on asset size, it is the second largest bank in the UK, although its share price is excessively lower due to a decrease in investor confidence (40% fall in the past year as of 10 May 2009.)