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Despite promoting himself as a geek, David Jacob, chief investment officer of listed assets and head of fixed income for Henderson Global Investors, is actually far from it.

As a self-confessed Sci-Fi fanatic, this genre of fiction is often thought to involve speculations on future science or technology. In announcing his love for all things to infinity and beyond, speculation is anything but new to Mr Jacob.

The high-profile Henderson acquisition of New Star is one that has raised many eyebrows since troubled asset manager New Star was sucked into a black hole last year.

The significant dip in assets under management and citing £260m debt, resulted in New Star’s corporate restructuring and official takeover by Henderson on April 9.

But to set the record straight, the 45-year-old states that the alliance has also been a positive outcome for the asset management giant Henderson, who cited £43.4bn assets under management noted in March this year.

Mr Jacob said: “For the business as a whole, the most attractive thing about the New Star acquisition from a Henderson point of view is it really jumps us up in terms of presence in the UK retail market.

“We have been here a long time, and this gives us the chance to come up the ranks pretty significantly. This is a core market, we are here to stay and take it very seriously.”

The acquisition resulted in around 130 New Star employees moving across on short-term contracts, but only 80 staff remained permanently on the Henderson books. This included 15 asset managers under Mr Jacob’s department.

He said: “From New Star, we took on some great talent, but could not take on everybody as we already have a strong team here. It was an opportunity to complement a number of areas.”

However, Mr Jacob does not play down the cloak-and-dagger environment during the merger, but insisted: “I do not want to say it was easy during the transition, as our operations, IT, support and back office have done a tremendous job.

“But in terms of being able to handle the continuity of investment management for the clients, it has been very straightforward.

“From a personal level, it was an increasingly difficult time for New Star, in not knowing if they would have jobs at all, to then our announcement, and then realising there would be some jobs available."

He said: “The Thursday before Easter, the fund managers went home from managing money at New Star offices, to come back on the Tuesday after Easter, to managing portfolios on our systems in our offices. This ensured our continuity to our clients and make sure we could deliver to them.

“This would have been different if the two firms had been from vastly different cultures. If one of the firms had a dictatorial approach, then this would have been difficult.”

Mr Jacob said: “Culturally, it has been a good fit, because New Star is very much about what does the individual manager bring.

“The most immediate objective for us was good communication for those at New Star and Henderson. As a business, our goal was then to reach out to those clients who left New Star in the fourth quarter during the uncertainty, and extended our proposition.

“What we provide is an environment where we have risk controls and make sure clients' objectives are addressed, but not to dampen the individual skill of the manager.

“We do this in a collective environment, where our clients are best served by good dialogue by our managers.”

With a sense of breeding managerial ethics and enhanced communication, Mr Jacob’s collective approach stems from an impressive resume.

Despite the American twang, Mr Jacob was actually born in London, but grew up in Texas.

Educated at the University of Pennsylvania, he then returned to the UK in 1986 and spent the first 10 years of his career at JP Morgan Investment Management.

He then worked for the next five years at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, before his appointment as managing director, head of fixed income EMEA.

Mr Jacob moved on to new pastures at UBS Global Asset Management where he was head of fixed income for Europe and the UK, before joining Henderson in January 2005 as head of fixed income, responsible for overseeing the management of all of Henderson's fixed income and structured products.

In 2006, Mr Jacob was also appointed joint managing director of the listed assets business, where under its umbrella, it also has a property business and private capital business.

Listed assets – which includes fixed income, equity, distribution and global distribution – was originally formed together by Mr Jacob and chief executive Andrew Formica.

And since joining Henderson four-and-a-half years ago, Mr Jacob still heads its 55-strong fixed income team and leads its 355 employees in total, with drive and determination.

He said: “The questions we need to constantly ask are, are we delivering to clients, are we winning business and are we positioning ourselves well.

“It has been a very difficult environment, and last year was a tough year. We wanted to make sure we stayed true to the right way in managing money, and communicating at all times to our clients. Over the last three years, over 70 per cent of our clients have achieved their benchmark goals.”

But he does not just stop there. He also co-chairs the Listed Assets Executive Committee with Bill McQuaker, head of equities, and is also a member of the Henderson Global Policy Committee, which bumps up his current CV.

While as a keen history fan, Mr Jacob pointed out that the industry cannot always learn from the past, especially when it comes to the current recession.

He said: “We are in a credit crisis, and this has significantly impacted on the fixed income in a way we have never seen. The impact to the banks created enormous liquidity problems in fixed income. The economic outlook created a great deal of uncertainty and changed the nature of buyers in fixed income market dramatically.”

But with an open optimism, he said the absolute number one priority is to deliver performance to the clients in all asset classes, while providing good communication with clients to be able to move them to a position of comfort.

Mr Jacob said: “With the increase in assets at New Star, I am enthusiastic about what the future holds. The biggest lesson learned is that diversified assets management businesses are a better way to go than a single strand boutique.”

His analysis extended to: “As an asset management business, the industry is definitely vulnerable to where the equity market goes, and you have to be able to manage your costs against revenue that is being hit by the equity market, regardless of the success of your own proposition.

“Strong management teams in diversified businesses are the ones who will win in this environment. There will always be boutiques, but the bigger players will be able to take advantage of opportunities and movement in that direction.”

Girlie Garduce is a former senior features writer of Financial Adviser

CV David Jacob

2006-present: CIO of listed assets and head of fixed income, Henderson

2005: Head of fixed income, Henderson

2001-2005: Head of fixed income for Europe and the UK, UBS Global Asset Management

1996-2001: Managing director, head of fixed income, EMEA Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.

1986-1996: Various roles, JP Morgan Asset Management