Ascalon Capital Managers’ head of investments, Nelson Lam, is to leave the business to join partner H3 Global Advisors as chief operating officer. Lam will join H3 on July 16.

Ascalon’s head of boutique partnerships, Jason Collins, says Lam had been “intimately involved with H3” for a number of months and will join the business fulltime.

“H3 had grown to the point where they wanted to have a dedicated chief operating officer,” Collins says.

“This was a natural progression for him to develop his career. Ascalon supports that move and we think it is a really good outcome.”

Lam’s role at Ascalon focused on identifying potential investment targets, conducting due diligence and managing ongoing relationships between Ascalon and its investee companies.

“Our expansion plans are more focused on Asia, so the investment effort, which is what Nelson was previously doing, will be more focused [there],” Collins says.

Ascalon has a stake in nine boutique asset management firms, including H3.

In May last year, Ascalon appointed Chuak Chan to head its then-new Asian operations. In December last year Ascalon took a 35-per-cent stake in the Hong King-based Athos Capital and in January this year it took a 30-per-cent stake in the Singapore-based Canning Park.

Earlier this month the chief executive of Ascalon, Andrew Landman, announced he was leaving the business in December to join BlackRock as head of alternatives in Australia.