The UK wealth manager has continued the expansion of its ultra high net worth team with the appointment of Rupert Howard as senior portfolio manager in the London office.

Howard joins from Rothschild Private Management, where he had been in charge of UK portfolio management since 2009 and sat on the global asset allocation committee. Before joining Rothschild in 2003 he worked for Aberdeen Asset Management, Hill Samuel Asset Management and NatWest Stockbrokers.

Howard will partner with Alastair Randall, senior portfolio manager, in developing the firm’s UHNW capabilities, which has been growing fast since Stefanie Drews took charge in 2010 and is seen as a key business area at Barclays Wealth.

The wealth manager has also boosted its regional presence in the UK with the addition of David Archer as a private banker based in the East Midlands area.

Archer joins from Kleinwort Benson, where he worked as a private banker and intermediary sales manager. In his new position at Barclays Wealth he will be working closely with the bank’s corporate division, which he also did in his previous job.

January has so far been a busy month for the wealth management firm, which kicked off the new year by making a number of major changes within its top-level management structure in the Americas. Mitch Cox, who had combined leadership of Barclays Wealth Americas with heading global research and investments, will from now on concentrate solely on building the US business. Leadership of the GR&I function will be split between Tom Lee, head of global banking and investment solutions for Barclays Wealth Americas, and Rob Brown, who will continue as head of GBIS, UK, EMEA and Asia. They have been appointed as co-heads of global research and join Barclays Wealth’s management committee.