Dutch-based investment consultant Cardano has announced the appointment of Bill Kelsey to its London-based investment management team with specific responsibility for selecting equity long/short and long-only managers for the firm's UK clients, working closely with colleagues in London, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

'We are focused on delivering great performance to clients in a risk-controlled way and are building a team of experienced investment decision-makers,' says Cardano's head of investment management Keith Guthrie.

'Bill's appointment demonstrates our ability to attract the best people to achieve this. He has managed funds of hedge funds as well as having extensive experience with traditional long-only managers.'

Kelsey joins Cardano from Integrated Alternative Investments, where he was the manager of various funds of hedge funds and invested in long/short equity and multistrategy funds. He previously undertook manager research at Morgan Stanley and spent four years researching investment managers for the USD10bn endowment fund of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

His appointment follows the hiring of Guthrie, who was co-manager of a USD5bn fund of hedge funds at GAM before joining Cardano in February. The firm opened its London office last July.

Cardano provides pension fund clients with integrated investment and risk services, providing both advice and full implementation, including its core offering of solvency management, the holistic management of pension fund assets against liabilities in a risk-controlled way.

The firm, which works with more than 70 European pension funds and insurance companies, says it is the European market leader in modelling, implementing and managing tailor-made derivatives overlay strategies, carrying out derivatives transaction with a value of more than EUR35bn for its clients last year.