Pioneer Alternative Investments has announced three new hires to its fund of hedge funds research team with the appointments of Bob Puccio as global head of macro, quantitative, fixed-income (including convertible arbitrage) and multi-strategy research, David Siegel as a junior research analyst and Ellen Cooper as a junior operational due diligence analyst.

Puccio joins Pioneer from Thalia, part of the Generali Group, where he was a senior hedge fund analyst responsible for discretionary and quantitative macro funds for its multistrategy fund of hedge funds business. He was previously as chief investment officer for BSI Investment Advisors and supervisor of foreign exchange trading operations at Goldman Sachs.

In his new role, Puccio will be responsible for research and due diligence on underlying hedge fund managers, looking at potential new investment opportunities and ongoing monitoring of existing managers. He will be based in Pioneer's New York office and report to portfolio manager and head of research and due diligence Richard Berger.

Siegel joins from Morgan Stanley's prime brokerage department, having previously worked as a fixed-income analyst. He will be responsible for covering Pioneer's credit and event-driven strategies and report to Tommaso Mancuso, global head of credit and event-driven research.

Cooper was previously a financial analyst for Financially Fit in New York and an auditor for Deloitte and Touche in Memphis, Tennessee. Based in New York, she reports to senior operational due diligence analyst Josh Hall.

'These important hires prove once more the emphasis we put on research and due diligence,' says head of investments Paolo Barbieri. 'Richard Berger, whom we hired 18 months ago, has been extremely effective in strengthening our global research team with the hire of a number of talented analysts from the industry. The latest appointments further bolster our New York team and increases our fund of hedge funds investment team worldwide to 28.'

Berger adds: 'We have a very powerful research team of 21 people, covering investment analysis, operational risk and quantitative and risk analysis.'

Pioneer Investments, a subsidiary of UniCredito Italiano, is a global investment management group with more than 2,300 staff in 25 countries and EUR224.9bn in assets under management and administration at the end of October. From investment centres in Dublin, Boston and Singapore, the company provides investment products and services including mutual funds and structured products to clients such as institutions, corporations, intermediaries and private investors worldwide.

Pioneer Alternative Investments is the group's hedge fund business with main operations in London, Milan and New York and an investment centre in Dublin. The business had total assets under management of EUR5.62bn in single strategy funds as well as a range of funds of hedge funds at the end of October.