The new COO will start at the firm in early November.

Pacific Asset Management has appointed Paul McLernon as its chief operating officer and Ben Sears as head of UK advisor strategy.

PAM, the asset management arm of Sir John Beckwith’s Pacific Investments Group, has also launched the Pacific North of South EM All Cap Equity fund. This is after PAM became a partner of the boutique emerging markets equities manager North of South Capital earlier this year, the firm said in a statement.

McLernon, who starts in early November, joins from Pensato Capital , the equity long/short manager, where he was COO and equity partner. 

Prior to joining Pensato, Paul spent 13 years at Goldman Sachs, where he was part of the prime brokerage and equity finance trading business.

Sears, who started in late September, joins from Shore Capital having previously worked alongside Matt Lamb for eight years at GAM. He will spearhead PAM’s expansion into the UK market.

Fund
The emerging markets long-only UCITS fund will launch in November 2017. The new Pacific EM fund will follow the same investment process that North of South Capital founder Matt Linsey and his team have executed for years. 

PAM’s multi-asset range of funds surpassed the $120 million asset under management mark since its launch in January 2017. The funds blend active, passive and smart beta strategies.

“We have made significant progress since the multi-asset funds launched in January, not only from an AUM perspective but also by continuing to build a flexible, robust infrastructure, supported by some of the most talented people in the industry," said Matthew Lamb, chief executive. "I am delighted that Paul and Ben are joining the business. Their arrival will help us to continue to focus on our primary goal of delivering outstanding investment solutions to our clients.”