Jan Dehn, who became the sole head of research at emerging-markets specialist Ashmore Investment Management this week, is a former portfolio manager and World Bank economist who speaks six languages and once worked as a boat-builder in Denmark.

Dehn's former co-head Jerome Booth has retired from the firm. Booth was a co-founder and second-largest shareholder in Ashmore, which was bought out by its staff from the Australia & New Zealand Banking Group and listed on the London market in 1999.