US investment giant BlackRock has hired Ian Winship, latterly of the UK hedge fund firm Brevan Howard, as a senior portfolio manager in its sterling fundamental fixed income team.

At Brevan Howard, Winship was head of absolute return product, prior to which he spent 11 years at Aberdeen Asset Management. In his new role at BlackRock he will focus primarily on UK rates and on developing business in the UK. He reports to Paul Shuttleworth, head of sterling fixed income.

In other recent developments at BlackRock, yesterday news emerged that Richard Plackett, head of the firm’s UK smaller companies investment team, is to hand over the running of the UK Smaller Companies Fund to his co-manager Ralph Cox on 1 November.