Adam & Co launches its rebuilding programme

ADAM & COMPANY, the Edinburgh-based private bank, has hired three people in an effort to rebuild its business following a spate of defections to rival firms.

The bank said the new recruits were "the tip of the iceberg" and that announcements about others would be made in the coming weeks.

Simon Murphy will join the bank in early December as an investment director and will assume responsibility for the bank's Glasgow investment based business.

He will replace Stephen Martin, who is taking his team to wealth manager Brewin Dolphin in the New Year.

Murphy, the former head of law firm Lyndsay's wealth management division, joins Adam & Co following his departure from Ashcourt Rowan Asset Management's Edinburgh operation earlier this year after having only been in the role for a few months. Murphy has also had senior roles in Ivory & Sime and Rathbones.

He will be joined at the Royal Bank of Scotland-owned private bank by David Boswell.

A former research psychologist, Boswell moves to Adam & Co from Jardine Lloyd Thomson Actuaries & Consultants and will be based in the bank's Edinburgh office as a senior investment manager.

Mike Gore will also join Adam's Edinburgh office as a senior investment manager.

This is an internal move for Gore who has been with Royal Bank of Scotland International based in Jersey for five years.

Both Boswell and Gore joined the bank last month.

Harry Morgan, head of investment management at Adam, said: "We're investing heavily in our business in order to lay the foundations for a strong and successful future and, while there has been much speculation about the recent drive for change, we firmly believe that this is absolutely what's needed to enable Adam to compete on a global level in an increasingly competitive market.

"These three hires are just the tip of the iceberg, as we expect to make further news on recruitment in the weeks ahead."

The recruits mark a change for Adam which has been shaken by the departure of several key staff in recent months as the bank struggles to integrate its business with the RBS wealth management division.

Apart from the departure of the Glasgow investment team, the bank's chief executive, David Cathie, left, and Niall Kennedy, one of its most senior investment directors, joined rival wealth manager Cazenove.

William Kirkwood, Adam's head of private client investment administration, and Ross McDonald, its head of investment operations, resigned in April to set up a rival back-office administration firm, IM Wealth Services.

Last year, Adam's former chief investment officer Gareth Howlett took with him a team of three to start an Edinburgh office for wealth management firm Brooks Macdonald.

The firm has also lost charity specialist Amanda Forsyth to Charlotte Square, assistant fund manager Neil Mitchell who left for Cavendish Asset Management and investment director Simon Steele who joined Merrill Lynch.