Baillie Gifford head of European equities to leave in 2011

Peter Hollis, head of the European equity team and a partner at Baillie Gifford, is leaving the company in April 2011.

Hollis, who joined the firm in 1989 and became a partner in 2002, is stepping down for personal reasons.

He joined the firm's European team in 2004 after a five year stint on its North American equities team and a 10 year spell on the British equities team.

A spokesperson for Baillie Gifford says: "As the departure date is 15.5 months away, Baillie Gifford is currently considering people and structures."

News of Hollis' departure comes as Baillie Gifford announced three new appointments to its board, bringing the number of partners to 35.

Richard McGrail, Will Sutcliffe and Nick Thomas will be appointed to the board in May.

McGrail is head of the information systems department, Sutcliffe is senior portfolio manager in the emerging markets equity team while Thomas has been working on the company's EAFE Alpha equity product.

Joint senior partner Alex Callander says the firm will be looking to steadily grow and to offer employees ownership opportunities.

"2009 was a good year for us and many of our clients," he says. "Clients generally benefited from both a strong recovery in markets and excellent investment performance by us last year which of course helps to achieve their longer term goals."

Baillie Gifford, which is wholly owned and managed by its partners who work full time for the business, has assets under management of £55.9bn at 31 December 2009. This compares with £43.1 bn the previous year.