Gavin Rochussen is to take up the reins at £8.4 billion investment boutique Polar Capital, news that comes two days after it was announced that the former chief executive of JO Hambro Capital Management was to leave the group for a new role in asset management.

Rochussen, who swapped his fund management post after eight years for a wider international role focusing on expanding JO Hambro's business in the US and Asia in September, is on six months' gardening leave, the company said in a statement on January 17.