Gresham Trust, the middle market private equity house owned by Zurich Financial Services, has hired Gary Ward as head of business development for outside London.

Ward, who joins Gresham Trust after working as head of deal origination for the midlands region for PricewaterhouseCoopers Private Equity, will be based in Birmingham. He will be responsible for spearheading the private equity house's deal origination activities in areas outside London. He will also have special responsibility for building direct relationships with management teams and owners of companies, particularly in the midlands and northern regions of the UK.