Armstrong poaches former Insight colleague de Bunsen

Armstrong Investment Managers (AIM) has hired James de Bunsen from Insight to oversee investment selection and manager due diligence at the multi-asset boutique.

De Bunsen was a colleague of the boutique's founders Patrick Armstrong and Ana Armstrong.

De Bunsen is currently an analyst within Insight's multi-asset group headed up by Michael Pinggera, who took over the team after the Armstrongs departed to set up AIM as a rival multi-asset business.

De Bunsen had been at Insight since 2005, when Armstrong hired him from Clerical Medial Investment Management.

Fellow Insight colleague Eugene Fostiak also joined the team last year.

Ana Armstrong said: 'We have worked with James since he joined Insight in 2005 and we are very happy to be working with him again. James will play a key role in investment selection across all of our strategies.'

The boutique has seen strong recent performance on its retail-focused IM Armstrong Diversified Real Return A  fund with the fund up 7.7% from launch on 21 January to 10 June 2010, placing it first in the 163 strong IMA Cautious Managed Sector since inception.

The team's global macro fund, IM Armstrong Diversified Dynamic Solution is up 6% this year.

Ana Armstrong added: 'Our recently announced involvement in the establishment of Distinction Asset Management shows our commitment to the UK intermediated market and with the addition of James to our team, we believe we have one of the best resourced Multi-Asset teams in the industry.'

From 28 June, the  Dynamic Diversified Return fund will be rebranded the IM Distinction Real Return fund after the board of Dynamic Assets Managed funds selected Armstrong Investment Managers (AIM) to manage its £184 million Dublin-domiciled umbrella.