Ben Bernanke

One of the world’s biggest investment firms said it had appointed a stellar cast of advisers, including ex-Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and former British prime minister Gordon Brown.

Pacific Investment Management Co., or Pimco, also appointed ex-European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet and former US State Department policy chief Anne-Marie Slaughter to its new Global Advisory Board.

Pimco currently manages $1.5 trillion in assets, but the California-based firm has been hit by turmoil after the shock departure of former CEO Mohamed El-Erian last year.

It is currently mired in an acrimonious legal dispute with former founder Bill Gross, and in May its flagship bond fund lost its title as the world’s largest as investors yanked billions from the company’s management.

Dan Ivascyn, Pimco’s group chief investment officer, said the board was an “unrivalled team of macroeconomic thinkers” who would provide valuable input to the firm.

Ng Kok Song, former chief investment officer of the Singapore government’s GIC, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, completes the five-strong board.

Bernanke, who is to chair the advisory board, is a former economics professor at Princeton University and is credited with steering the US economy out of the 2008 global financial crash.

Brown has also won plaudits for his role during the crisis, and his bank rescue packages and loan guarantees are cited by experts as having staved off British financial collapse and set an example to other countries.

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