London CIV, the asset pooling manager for the UK capital’s local government pension schemes, has appointed Vanessa Shia to the new role of head of private markets.

The role will focus on delivering various private market fund launches and working with London CIV’s appointed advisors to support the development of a quality portfolio for the 32 London local authority pension funds behind London CIV.

The asset pool said Shia brought 14 years of industry experience covering primary, secondary and co-investment opportunities across the private markets spectrum, including private credit, infrastructure, real estate, private equity and hedge funds.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she was most recently a secondary market advisor at Pennant Capital Partners, and before that head of hedge fund secondaries for EMEA at DWS. She has also worked at Bedrock Group and the Universities Superannuation Scheme.

London CIV launched its first infrastructure fund last November, with a spokesperson at the time telling IPE it was “working towards the early stages of fund launch for three potential property funds”. Earlier in 2019, IPE Real Assets reported that London CIV was seeking to appoint a head of real assets.

Shia started her role at London CIV on 9 November.

She said: “I have already been warmly welcomed by my new colleagues, albeit virtually, and look forward to working with the team to deliver fund launches in the private market space and additionally, working alongside Jacqueline Jackson to develop our overall ESG framework and integrating it into our investment selection process.”

Jackson was announced as London CIV’s head of responsible investment in April, alongside Jason Fletcher as the new permanent chief investment officer and Cameron McMullen as new client relations director.

Commenting on Shia’s appointment, Fletcher said: “I am so pleased to welcome Vanessa to the team. She brings with her a wealth of experience in private markets and I am confident that her position will be of great value to the London CIV as we continue to develop our portfolio of funds, in partnership with our 32 client funds.”

As at the end of September, London CIV’s assets under oversight stood at £20.9bn (€17.3bn) via more than a dozen different investment funds.

The pool’s 32 client pension funds have more than £35bn in assets between them.

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