Axa Investment Managers has appointed Tim Fitch to its institutional sales team as director of single-strategy hedge fund sales, reporting to Martin Hall, head of Axa Investment Managers for the UK and Scandinavia.

Fitch joins from KBC Alternative Investment Management where he was responsible for marketing its single manager strategic offering to the hedge fund investor community in Europe and the US.

Previously he had a global mandate as marketing director with GMP Asset Management, a European event-driven manager, targeting family offices, private banks, funds of hedge funds, insurance companies, endowments and pension funds. Fitch has more than eight years' industry experience encompassing both sell-side and buy-side institutions.

'Tim's appointment reinforces Axa IM's long-term commitment to hedge funds as an asset class and is an important part of the drive to build our single-strategy hedge fund business,' Hall says.

Axa Investment Managers, part of the Axa insurance and wealth management group, had around EUR527bn in assets under management at the end of March and employs more than 3,000 people in 21 countries.