David Vickers, chief investment officer at Brunel Pension Partnership, will be leaving the company next spring, having served in his role for four years, the LGPS pool announced today.

Vickers is leaving to take up a new opportunity at a large endowment fund, Brunel said.

Brunel is the asset-pooling company for 10 local government pension schemes (LGPS), collectively managing over 80% (£30.8bn as at the end of September 2023) of the total assets and investments held by its clients. It has made major commitments to responsible investment and managing climate change risk.

Vickers joined Brunel in November 2020 from Russell Investments, where he had been head of multi-asset, EMEA. Before that, he had been a partner at Sarasin & Partners, where he worked as a multi-asset manager. He had previously also worked as investment manager at Baring Asset Management.

Brunel said the company “is enormously grateful for David’s commitment to our founding vision, and for the investment insight and people skills he has brought to a very wide-ranging role. He has been a key player in our Net Zero journey in recent years. His roles on the National Wealth Fund and Global Mining Commission indicate how highly he is valued.”

Vickers is a member of the Global Investor Commission on Mining 2030, a $15trn-backed initiative concerned with ensuring that the mining sector can meet growing demand for minerals in an environmentally and socially responsible way. 

Brunel is beginning the process of finding Vicker’s successor. It said it hoped its next CIO can “continue to help us forge better futures by investing for a world worth living in, adding to the pioneering work we do not just on climate change, but increasingly across social and natural capital, too”.

The announcement of Vickers’s upcoming departure comes as Sally Bridgeland replaced Denise Le Gal as chair of the partnership, with the latter stepping down after eight years of service. 

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