Ben Whitfield has joined Olympia Capital Management as a London-based senior vice-president and head of sales for the UK and northern Europe, covering the UK, Scandinavian and Dutch markets.

Whitfield (photo) joins from Optimal Investment Services, Banco Santander's fund of hedge funds group, where he developed their northern European sales franchise.

Previously he was at Consensus Business Group, and before that at JP Morgan Cazenove.

Whitfield will be reporting to Laurent Dupeyron, managing director of Olympia Capital Management, who says: 'I am delighted that Ben has made the move to Olympia; he will help us further build our UK and Scandinavian client base at a time when we believe investors will be making a flight to quality in their fund of hedge funds allocations.

'Through his understanding of the industry and thanks to Olympia's above average performance, robust process and understanding of investors requirements, we hope to capitalize on that trend and position Olympia as one of the premier providers amongst this extremely important investor community."

Founded in 1989, Olympia Capital Management is an independent fund of hedge funds manager.

It has over 80 people in Paris, New York, London, Zurich and Hong Kong and an investment team composed of over 20 professionals.