UBS Global Asset Management has announced that O'Connor, the hedge fund specialist within the bank's alternative and quantitative investments group, has appointed Mark Melchiorre as head of O'Connor credit strategies.

Melchiorre joins UBS from Credit Suisse Group in New York where he was a senior member of the high yield credit trading group. He will become a managing director and will focus on expanding O'Connor's credit trading strategies.

'We are excited to add Mark's talent and experience to our global team, and believe the market opportunity for his credit trading skill set is tremendous,' says Joseph Scoby, global head of the alternative and quantitative investments group. 'With the current downdraft in credit markets, we feel it is a good time to build the business under Mark's leadership.'

O'Connor, which had more than USD7bn in assets under management at the beginning of August, is dedicated to absolute return investment management through its single manager funds and combines experience in trading, risk management and alternative investments.

UBS's alternative and quantitative investments group is one of the largest alternative investment providers in the world, with more than USD 60 billion in assets under management at the beginning of August.

UBS Global Asset Management has around 3,500 employees in 23 countries and main offices in Basel, Chicago, Frankfurt, Grand Cayman, Hartford, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto and Zurich.

The group provides traditional, alternative and real estate investment management services to private clients, financial intermediaries and institutional investors worldwide, and managed assets totalling some CHF920bn at the end of June.