The former deputy head of equities at the UK’s largest pension fund has joined the £11.5bn (€15.7bn) West Midlands Pension Fund to lead the local government scheme’s in-house investment team.

Jason Fletcher joined WMPF as assistant director of investments on 16 September.

He joined from the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), where he was head of North American equities and deputy head of equities until April.

At WMPF, Fletcher reports to Geik Drever, the head of the pension fund.

He replaced Mark Chaloner as head of the investment team.

Fletcher had been at USS since 1995, having joined from British Airways Pension Fund.

He started at USS as head of Asian equities (ex Japan), before moving to the scheme’s Americas desk in 1999.

This included responsibility for a Latin American portfolio before it was transferred to another team.

Between 2007 and 2012, Fletcher also shared the role of deputy CIO at USS in addition to leading the Americas equities team.

The deputy CIO roles were devolved in 2012, when Fletcher became deputy head of equities in addition to his role as head of North American equities.

WMPF has been restructuring its portfolio and last year introduced an in-house actively managed global equities portfolio.

The fund is one of the eight local government pension schemes (LGPS) forming the £32.6bn Central asset pool.

Drever is WPMF’s programme director for investment pooling, with Fletcher expected to have some involvement in this, too. 

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