James Gruver has left BNY Mellon, where he was most recently managing director and head of the client advisory group in the US, to join alternatives specialist Black River Asset Management to help expand the firm’s international reach.

Gruver joins the Minneapolis-based Black River as head of investor relations, reporting to CEO and managing principal Gary Jarrett, who said Gruver “will be responsible for expanding Black River’s global brand footprint, developing new business and deepening strategic relationships with institutional investors, investment consultants and intermediaries”.

Black River has about US$10 billion under management, sourced globally. In the APAC region it has offices in Singapore and Shanghai.

Gruver is well known to fiduciary investors in the Asia Pacific region. He joined the former Mellon Global Investments as head of marketing for Japan in 2001, moved to Sydney to head up the merged BNY Mellon Asset Management in 2003, and was then promoted back to the US in 2009 as managing director and head of the client advisory group.

Black River is an interesting manager, not just because of the hedge funds, private equity, commodity-related and other alternatives it manages. It is an independently managed subsidiary of Cargill, one of the world’s largest providers of food, agriculture and industrial products. Cargill is privately owned but employs more than 140,000 people in 65 countries.

Black River Asset Management takes its name from the Black River falls, Winsconsin, near where the original William W. Cargill established his lumber and materials business in 1865. The business was named WW Cargill and Brother a year later when his brother Sam joined him.