The latest moves and appointments at Gresham House, a specialist alternative asset manager and one of the largest global forestry managers.

Gresham House has appointed Claire Glennon as head of UK institutional sales, and Alastair Leather as director of institutional business to work alongside Heather Fleming, managing director of institutional business.

Glennon will be joining in August 2023 from Schroders where she was most recently UK head of sustainability, the firm said in a statement. 

In this newly-created role, Glennon, who has over 25 years of industry experience, will support the continued growth of the business and meet the increasing institutional demand for sustainable investment solutions, the firm continued. Prior to her sustainability role at Schroders, she was co-head of the UK institutional business, and formerly head of UK and Ireland business development.  

Glennon will join Heather Fleming in growing and servicing Gresham House’s expanding institutional client base. Their primary focus will be on Local Government Pension Schemes (LGPS) but they will also be covering insurance companies, charities, and endowments, in response to increasing interest in these areas from institutional investors. 

Leather, who joined in July, was most recently director of institutional business at Ninety One (formerly Investec Asset Management).  Before that, he was at Goldman Sachs for 10 years. Leather will primarily focus on managing and developing investment consultant relationships as well as sales coverage, the firm added. 

“Claire’s deep understanding of their [investors'] needs and her leadership experience in sustainability will support the continued expansion of our distribution channels in the UK and internationally as we grow. Alastair’s expertise in fundraising and building strong relationships will be key to ensuring Gresham House reaches its strategic goals and growth objectives,” Rupert Robinson, managing director at Gresham House, said. 

The moves comes after the firm’s assets under management grew in 2022, compared with the previous year, by 20 per cent to reach £7.8 billion ($9.7 billion), with organic growth of £1.1 billion – a rise of 17 per cent, in spite of the volatile economic conditions. The firm expects vertical farming and its international expansion in forestry to help increase growth in 2023/24. 

The firm is a specialist alternative asset management group, dedicated to sustainable investments across a range of strategies, with expertise across forestry, housing, sustainable infrastructure including vertical farming, renewable energy and battery storage, public and private equity. See here for more articles about the firm.