Baring Asset Management, the London-headquartered investment house which is part of MassMutual Financial Group, has appointed James Ross to the newly created role of director of investment process, with effect from 2 September.

Ross joined Alliance Bernstein in 2001. From 2009, he was head of senior portfolio managers, global growth, where he was involved in the management of the firm’s global growth equity. Before that, Ross served on the sell side as a research analyst at James Capel and ABN Amro.

In his new role, Ross will be based in London, reporting to Marino Valensise, chief investment officer.

In other recent hires at the firm, earlier in the month Baring Asset Management appointed Peter Curry as assistant director for international institutional sales, based in London.

Baring Asset Management manages over £29.3 billion (around $45 billion) of assets on behalf of its institutional clients globally, as at 30 June 2013.