Gartmore strengthens retail business with appointment of Richard Pursglove

Gartmore is pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Pursglove from Cazenove Capital Management as Head of UK Retail.

This appointment follows a review process that identified the need to restructure Gartmore's UK Retail business, a key strategic area, in order to accelerate progress against ambitious business growth plans whilst remaining focussed in a rapidly changing industry.

Reporting to Phil Wagstaff, Global Head of Distribution, Richard will join Gartmore in late March 2008.

This newly created role will encompass both the sales and marketing responsibilities for UK Retail.

Richard has a first class reputation in the UK fund management industry and has long standing relationships with many key intermediaries.

As Sales Director at Cazenove Capital Management where Richard has spent the last six years, he has made a significant contribution in building one of the most successful specialist UK Retail businesses.

Phil Wagstaff commented, "We are delighted that Richard has agreed to head our UK Retail team with the key responsibility to lead our ambitious growth plans in the UK Retail market.

We believe that his proven skills and experience will help us achieve our long term goals, strengthening Gartmore's position with intermediaries, our distribution partners and their clients.

"This key appointment will enable us to have a more focussed and robust business platform to help intermediaries in their decision to choose Gartmore as a fund provider of choice.

We have the mix of products with impressive performance for them to choose from with plans to significantly increase our marketing spend in order to raise Gartmoreandrsquo;s brand profile.

Our aim is to be our clients' most trusted investment manager and we believe Richard's appointment is one of the key catalysts for Gartmore achieving its goals." Robin Minter-Kemp, Managing Director, Cazenove Capital added,"Richard has been instrumental in building our UK retail business from infancy to the current breadth of product.

His energy and commitment will bode well for this new opportunity.

We wish him all the best." Gartmore has an excellent track record in fund management as one of the largest UK Retail asset managers, ranked 11th by retail assets under management as at 30th November 2007, with areas of particular investment expertise being European equities, Emerging Markets and China, Global Equities, Cautious Managed funds and Multi Manager funds.

The Gartmore China Opportunities Fund has returned an impressive 87.52% over one year and 430.94% over five years and was the top performing fund in its sector over both periods.

Following this restructuring, we are in discussion with Rodney Aldridge, currently responsible for the UK sales team, about other roles within the Company.

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