Manulife Asset Management has named Craig Bethune and Diana Racanelli as portfolio managers on a new global natural resources equity team.

Manulife Asset Management has named Craig Bethune and Diana Racanelli as portfolio managers on a new global natural resources equity team.

Both join from a large Canadian bank-owned asset management firm, Manulife said, and are based in Toronto. They will report to Christopher Conkey, global chief investment officer at Manulife Asset Management.

In his prior job, Bethune was most recently the lead manager on the firm's energy and resource funds and co-manager on a Canadian equity fund. Prior to his stint there he held analyst and research positions with Credit Suisse Canada, having also worked at other firms.

At her former firm, Racanelli was latterly a vice president and director, serving as lead manager of a precious metals fund and co-manager of several resource and energy funds. From 2005 to 2007 she worked at CIBC Global Asset Management as vice president of Canadian equities and earlier was vice president of global equity research.

Manulife Asset Management is the global asset management arm of Manulife Financial; the firm has C$298 billion ($269 billion) in assets under management, as at end-March 2014.