SPP, IFRS Foundation, BlackRock, AFII, Smart, Savills, Dalriada Trustees, Tryg, AP1, AP4
BlackRock – The firm has appointed Camille de Lamotte as co-head of private debt origination in France and head of origination in Spain, strengthening its European private debt team to expand investor access to this growing asset class.
Based in Paris, de Lamotte will be responsible alongside Guillaume Claire (co-head of France) for sourcing and executing middle-market direct lending investment opportunities.
With more than 20 years of experience in private debt investment, de Lamotte most recently worked at Goldman Sachs, where he was head of direct lending in France and Spain. Prior to this, he was head of leveraged finance for GE Capital in Paris, where he originated and executed transactions across Europe including club transactions, syndicated lead deals and unitranche financings.
Dalriada Trustees – The UK independent professional pension trustee firms has appointed Barbara Fewkes as a professional trustee.
Fewkes previously worked as a partner and scheme actuary at Barnett Waddingham. She has extensive experience advising trustees on current issues, risk management, scheme governance and scheme funding, including assisting in negotiations with employers. She regularly supported trustees through the buy-in/buyout and winding-up processes.
She also advised sponsoring employers on a number of pension-related matters, from scheme closures and mergers to accounting disclosures.
Fewkes joined Dalriada in its Glasgow office to further grow the firm’s presence in Scotland. Dalriada now employs over 50 professional trustees, overseeing more than 350 pension schemes across the UK.
Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute (AFII) – The research organisation has expanded its Asia-Pacific team with the appointment of David Lewis and Hazel Ilango.
Lewis joins as research director, bringing more than 20 years of experience in financial markets, most recently in sustainable-finance initiatives and governance in New Zealand. He was previously deputy chief investment officer and portfolio manager of various credit and multi-asset funds at Milford Asset Management, an asset manager in New Zealand and Australia. Prior to this, he worked internationally at Merrill Lynch in a range of credit research roles.
Based in Malaysia, Ilango is a research associate focused on the Asia-Pacific energy transition. She joined from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) where her research focus was on integrating climate risk within credit scoring models. Before that, Ilango was at RAM Ratings, a credit rating agency.
Tryg – Christina Bustrup has decided to leave her job as pensions director at Danish insurance company Tryg. In a post on LinkedIn, she said she was “proud to have been part of Tryg with strong values, and to have been at the head of Tryg Pension”.
Bustrup has previously worked as chief operating officer of AP Pension, and subsequently as CEO of the AP Pension-owned company pensions firm Nærpension. She has been in the Tryg job for four years.
Cassa Nazionale del Notariato (CNN) – Stella Giovannoli, CIO at the Italian €1.8bn first-pillar pension fund for notaries, has been appointed chief financial officer (CFO) at the institution. Giovannoli joined CNN in 1985 to manage the institution’s portfolio.
Society of Pension Professionals (SPP) – The society has elected Sophia Singleton as its next president. Her two-year term commenced on 1 June 2024, succeeding Steve Hitchiner, partner at Barnett Waddingham, who held the role since 1 June 2022.
Under Hitchiner’s stewardship, the SPP has continued to grow its reach and influence. Over the past two years, the SPP’s membership has grown by approximately 20%, and it has driven a regular drumbeat of activity including events, consultation submissions and meetings with a range of industry stakeholders.
Singleton will build on these successes, to increase the SPP’s profile and influence while aiming to establish the SPP as a champion of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within the industry.
She is a partner and head of defined contribution (DC) at XPS Pensions Group, having joined XPS to head its DC business in 2020, which is when she joined the SPP Council. At XPS, she advises trustees and corporates in all areas of their DC benefits, with a particular focus on benefit design, investments, member engagement, data analytics and scheme governance.
IFRS Foundation – The Foundation’s trustees are seeking a new chair of the IFRS Advisory Council, the strategic advisory body to the trustees and the Foundation’s two standard-setting boards, to succeed the existing chair, Bill Coen, when his term ends.
The appointment is for a three-year term (potentially renewable once) beginning on 1 February 2025 and is remunerated. The time commitment required for the role is approximately two to three days per month. Interested participants can apply by 30 June 2024 to Ken Robinson, chair of the IFRS Foundation’s nominating committee, by email or online.
AP1/AP4 – Eva Lindström has been appointed by the Swedish government as the new chair of the national pensions buffer fund. She is replacing Urban Hansson Brusewitz, who is leaving the AP1 board when his eight-year time limit for board assignments comes to an end.
Lindström is currently a member of the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg, and her previous roles include that of auditor general and state secretary at the Ministry of Enterprise (Näringsdepartementet).
Meanwhile, Johan Gyllenhoff has been appointed as the new chair of AP4 — also one of the main four buffer funds behind the main element of Sweden’s state pension, the income pension.
Gyllenhoff has been acting chair of AP4 since last October, having been vice-chair before that. He is currently head of group finance and treasury at Swedish state-owned power company Vattenfall. He moved up to the position of acting chair last autumn after the buffer fund’s previous chair Britta Burreau died after a short illness.
Savills Investment Management – Andrew Dreaneen has been hired to the new role of global head of natural capital, working with Savills UK’s existing rural advisory practice.
Dreaneen joins from Schroders, where he spent 23 years, most recently as head of alternatives focusing on natural capital. His role covered primarily fund investments in forestry, farmland and conservation-based strategies, as well as direct investments in natural climate solutions and carbon markets.
Dreaneen will take on overall business responsibility for the natural capital investment division, leading on investment strategy, product design and capital raising. The global head of natural capital role has been created to elevate the group’s ambition to offer a global platform of natural capital strategies focusing on commercial forestry, rural land management and nature-based solutions.
Smart – The London-based global savings and investments technology platform provider has appointed Gordon Wilson as its new chair of the board, succeeding Ruston Smith.
Wilson brings a wealth of experience and a proven track record in the technology and pensions sectors, further strengthening Smart’s leadership team as the company continues its global expansion. His career spans over three decades, during which he has held key leadership positions and driven significant growth in various organisations, including both technology and pensions businesses.
He was the CEO of Advanced for over eight years and recently stepped down to start his non-executive career. Advanced is a business focused on digital transformation, impacting 40 million people every day.
Wilson succeeds Smith, who has completed two successful terms as independent non-executive director and chair of Smart, playing an instrumental role in the company’s growth from a startup to a globally-recognised retirement technology provider.
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