TPT, Standard Life, AXA IM, Ortec Finance, Rebalance Earth, Hymans Robertson, Mercer
AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) – Ouajnat Karim has been appointed as chief executive officer of AXA IM UK and AXA IM GS, subject to regulatory approval.
Karim will become UK CEO whilst retaining some of her current responsibilities as global head of oversight and chief operating officer UK, AXA IM Core. She will have a dual reporting line to Jean-Chistophe Menioux, general secretary and chief financial officer, and Geoffroy Reiss, COO and global head of transversal services for AXA IM Core.
The role will be effective as of 11 December 2024, when Karim takes over from current UK CEO Marcello Arona, who is pursuing an opportunity outside of the business.
Karim has 20 years of experience in financial services across alternatives, impact investing and traditional asset classes, and joined AXA IM in 2007. She was appointed deputy COO of core investments (later AXA IM Core) in 2019, assuming her present role earlier this year.
Hymans Robertson – The consultancy has appointed Lara Desay as head of risk transfer.
Desay has vast experience and knowledge of the risk transfer market and joined Hymans Robertson in 2022 as a partner. She was previously at Scottish Widows where she was head of origination and operations for the firm’s bulk annuity team.
Desay takes over the role from James Mullins who has headed-up the team since he founded it in 2007. Mullins will continue to be a key member of the Hymans Robertson risk transfer team, while also taking on additional responsibility chairing the firm’s partnership council.
Rebalance Earth – The UK’s boutique asset manager focused on financing nature has appointed Neil Entwistle, a professor in river science and climate resilience at the University of Salford, as its new head of science. His appointment comes at a critical time as severe weather events and flooding have surged across the UK and Europe, said Rebalance Earth.
With more than 20 years of expertise in river ecosystems, landscape restoration, and sustainable environmental strategies, Entwistle brings a wealth of knowledge to Rebalance Earth. His work spans multiple continents, tackling the challenges of climate change, habitat restoration, and natural flood management, making him an invaluable addition as the firm scales its mission to integrate nature-based solutions into climate-resilient infrastructure for companies and communities.
Entwistle will continue to research part-time with the University of Salford.
Ortec Finance – The firm has appointed Koen de Reus as its new head of client servicing in Ortec’s climate and ESG solutions team.
As head of client servicing, de Reus will lead a team of climate risk professionals to advise a wide range of financial institutions on integrating climate strategy within their investment decision-making processes. He will oversee the team to effectively help clients measure, manage, and monitor their investment portfolio’s climate risk exposure by evaluating worldwide macroeconomic, asset class, and sector impacts under different futures, using quantitative and qualitative insights from Ortec’s climate scenario analysis solution.
Since joining Ortec in 2014, de Reus has been a key adviser to some of the largest pension fund schemes in the UK, on stochastic scenario analyses for asset/liability management (ALM), strategic asset allocation (SAA), and risk management. In response to the growing concerns around climate risk over the recent years, he has played an integral role in the innovation and release of Ortec’s integrated economic and climate scenarios, to support investors’ needs to combine climate risk analysis results with traditional risk analysis outcomes.
Mercer – Jens Grebäck has been hired by Mercer Investment as partner and head of investment sales Nordic, with the international consultancy saying he would lead its “continuous growth efforts in the Nordic countries” — a region where the firm said it had seen significant growth over the last decade.
Grebäck joins the firm from Swedbank Robur where he was head of sales and client solutions, and a member of the bank-owned investment subsidiary’s management team. Before that role, he was head of distribution and institutional clients in Sweden at Storebrand Asset Management.
Standard Life – The firm, part of Phoenix Group, has appointed Alexa Mitterhuber to join its defined benefit (DB) solutions team as director of DB solutions.
Mitterhuber brings more than 11 years of industry experience, having joined from M&G where she specialised in corporate risk solutions following M&G’s re-entry into the bulk purchase annuity (BPA) market. Prior to this, she held various roles at Legal & General and Mercer, working across pensions insurance, pensions, and investment consulting.
This appointment reinforces Standard Life’s commitment to providing industry-leading de-risking solutions to pension schemes and trustees. It also follows a successful first half of 2024, where the business wrote £1.7bn worth of bulk purchase annuity premiums, and more recently announced the completion of a £250m buy-in deal with the Halma Group Pension Plan.
TPT Retirement Solutions – The firm has appointed Paddy Lye to its executive board as chief operating officer.
In his role, Lye will oversee TPT’s pensions administration, technology delivery, change management, and supply chain and procurement functions. He will lead the development of the company’s technology strategy and future growth plans. Lye will report to David Lane, CEO at TPT, and has replaced Ash Price following his retirement.
With more than 20 years of experience in strategic and operational transformations across a range of financial services businesses, Lye brings a wealth of experience to his new role. He joins from the British Business Bank, where he was COO, responsible for transforming the company’s technology, information security, and data capabilities, while overseeing its technology, change business resilience, procurement and middle-office functions.
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