Manulife Asset Management (MAM) has appointed Claude Chene to be its Global Head of Distribution, effective July 1, 2015. He will be based in London, England, and will report to Kai Sotorp, President and CEO of Manulife Asset Management and Global Head of Wealth and Asset Management for Manulife.

In this new role, Chene will be responsible for creating the distribution vision and strategy, as well as overseeing Manulife Asset Management’s sales and relationship management activity all over the world.

Before joining MAM, Chene served as Global Head of Distribution and Board Member at Ignis Asset Management in London for almost three years. Prior to that, he spent 13 years in a number of roles at Alliance Bernstein in New York and London, including Chief Executive Officer, Europe, and Head of Institutional Sales. He is a graduate of Brown University and has a BSc in Applied Mathematics and Economics.

“Expanding our distribution capability follows the build-out of our investment teams and Claude will, in addition to further building on our institutional distribution success and capabilities in Asia and North America, lead our institutional and wholesale expansion into Europe, Middle East and Latin American markets. He will also grow our financial institutions and sovereign wealth fund distribution capabilities,” said Sotorp.