The chief investment officer at Baring Asset Management has left the £24.6 billion fund manager just two months after its parent – the US insurance group MassMutual – announced an ambitious merger of its affiliates.

MassMutual said on March 9 that Barings, Babson Capital Management, Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers and Wood Creek Capital Management would be consolidated under the historic Barings name to create a $260 billion asset manager led by Tom Finke, the chairman and chief executive of Babson.