UBS has recruited Mark Melchiorre as head of O’Connor Credit Strategies, the key hedge fund specialist within the Alternative and Quantitative Investments group.

Mr Melchiorre joins UBS from Credit Suisse Group in New York where he was a senior member of the High Yield Credit Trading group.

He will serve as a managing director focused on expanding O’Connor’s credit trading strategies.

“We are excited to add Mark’s talent and experience to our global team, and believe the market opportunity for his credit trading skill set is tremendous. With the current downdraft in credit markets and Mark’s leadership, we feel it is a good time to build the business,” said Joseph Scoby, global head of A&Q.

O’Connor, with more than $7 billion in assets under management (as at 1 August 2007) is dedicated to absolute return investment management through its single manager funds and combines significant, actual experience in trading, risk management and alternative investments.

It is part of the Alternative and Quantitative Investments group, which is one of the largest alternative investment providers in the world with more than $60 billion in assets under management.

UBS Global Asset Management is one of the world’s largest asset managers, providing traditional, alternative and real estate investment management solutions to private clients, financial intermediaries and institutional investors worldwide.

Invested assets totalled around SFr920 billion at 30 June 2007.