State Street Corporation, BP Investment Management, BayernInvest, J O Hambro Capital Management, Nikko Asset Management, Aon Hewitt, Barnett Waddingham

State Street Corporation – Oliver Berger has been appointed senior vice-president and head of strategic market initiatives for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In this newly created role, based in Frankfurt, Berger will be responsible for the development of State Street’s new initiatives and client solutions. He joins from JPMorgan Chase Group after 19 years, where his most recent role was head of prospect sales for the EMEA. Separately, Andreas Schmid has joined as vice-president in the asset owner solutions team based in Zurich, joining from RBC Investor and Treasury Services.

BP Investment Management – BP’s £19bn (€22.7bn) pension fund has increased its in-house capacity, hiring new heads of fixed income and investment strategy. BP IM has named Ian Smart as head of fixed income and the Pension Protection Fund’s (PPF) Opkar Sara as head of investment strategy. Smart joined in June from consultancy Aon Hewitt, which he joined in December 2012 as senior researcher for bond managers. Sara also joined in June, after nearly five years at the PPF as principal fund manager, in charge of asset allocation and investment strategy.

BayernInvest  – Oliver Schlick has told the supervisory board he will not stand for re-election as board member and CIO in February 2015 when his contract expires. Schlick has been on the board of the asset management subsidiary of German regional bank BayernLB since 2008. The supervisory board said it would finalise the hiring of a new CIO in early 2015.

J O Hambro Capital Management – The investment boutique has appointed James Elks as senior manager for institutional business. He joins from Martin Currie, where he was responsible for UK institutional and global consultant relations. He has previously worked at Investec, Bramdean Asset Management and Credit Suisse Asset Management.

Nikko Asset Management – Nikko has hired William Low, former director of global equities at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), to head up a new global equities team. Low, who left SWIP in April following its acquisition by Aberdeen Asset Management, will be joined by six of his former colleagues, following the launch of Nikko’s Edinburgh office.

Aon Hewitt – Craig Gillespie has been appointed to the UK investment consulting team. He joins from Towers Watson, where he has worked for the last 14 years. Gillespie has more than 20 years’ experience in advising financial institutions and UK pension funds on risk strategy.

Barnett Waddingham – Simon Cohen and Rebecca Carse have been appointed to the investment consulting team. Cohen joins from JLT, where he was a director, while Carse – previously an assistant manager in Grant Thornton’s pension risk solutions team – joins from Barnett Waddingham’s Amersham office.

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