PLSA, Broadstone, Nuveen, Pictet, Elo, Aviva, Generali, BVK, Aon, KZVK, Franklin Templeton, K3, Sienna, Vontobel, GAM
GAM – Elmar Zumbuehl, the firm’s current global chief risk officer and a member of the group management board, was appointed as group chief executive officer.
Zumbuehl has more than 20 years of experience working in the industry, having held multiple senior roles at previous firms. As group CEO, he will further build on GAM’s strong investment performance to create long term value for all their stake holders.
“The appointment reinforces the corporate stability that is assured by the CHF100m funding commitment of our anchor shareholder Rock Investment SAS,” said the current chair of GAM Holding AG, Antoine Spillman, adding that “Elmar has the right blend of experience and operational expertise, as well as an in-depth knowledge of GAM to lead the firm”.
Vontobel – The firm’s board of directors has announced that Christel Rendu de Lint and Georg Schubiger will continue to lead Vontobel as co-CEOs starting on 1 January 2024, after Zeno Staub decided to step down from his 12-year role as CEO.
Not only will Rendu de Lint and Schubiger take on the responsibilities as co-CEOs, but they will also continue to serve their roles as head of investments and head of wealth management, respectively. Additionally, Schubiger, will also become a member of the executive committee of Vontobel Holding AG.
Rendu de Lint has more than 20 years of experience in financial services, having worked at big corporations such as Morgan Stanley, Pictet, Union Bancaire Privee, and most recently at Vontobel, where she started off as deputy head of investments in May 2021.
Meanwhile, Schubiger has more than 25 years of experience in the industry with leadership positions across multiple firms, including Danske Bank Group, Sampo Bank in Finland, and McKinsey. Previous to his appointment as co-CEO, he has been head of wealth management, a member of the executive committee of Bank Vontobel, and chair of the board of Vontobel SFA, since 1 August 2012.
While Rendu de Lint and Schubiger take on new roles, Marko Röder, the current head asset manager, has announced he wants to step down due to personal reasons. Regardless of his exit, Röder hopes to take a new role within or outside the Vontobel Group.
Aviva – Leah Ramoutar has been hired as environmental sustainability director at Aviva. She is currently head of climate and nature risk at Phoenix Group and will join Aviva later this month.
Ramoutar is a fellow charterered accountant with more than 20 years of experience accross advisory, corporate finance, investment management and sustainability. In her role at Aviva, she will lead the firm’s Climate Centre of Excellence and Environment Hub, playing an important role delivering Aviva’s climate change and environment agenda.
Elo – Hanna Hiidenpalo, chief investment officer and deputy CEO of the Finnish mutual pensions insurance company, left her role on 30 September, but is continuing as an adviser to Elo until the end of 2023.
Hiidenpalo has led Elo’s investment operations since the company was formed in 2014 from the merger of Pension Fennia and LocalTapiola – having been CIO of the latter.
Carl Pettersson, Elo’s CEO, said the outgoing CIO had “led Elo’s investment operations purposely in a turbulent environment with good results”, and played an important role in building the institution’s new strategy.
Hiidenpalo said in the announcement of her departure that her 10 years at Elo had been great and eventful.
“In recent years, we have developed our investment process to correspond to changes in the operating environment and our investment results are good,” she said.
Jonna Ryhänen, who currently leads the allocation and alternative investments unit within Elo’s investment department, took over as acting CIO on 1 October, and the firm said was starting the search for a new permanent CIO straightaway.
Aon – The consultancy has strengthened its sales team in the central region of Germany by promoting Moritz Scheckenbach, previously sales manager, as regional manager. He takes over this position from Tobias Sticht, who has been chief commercial officer for Germany and Austria since April.
Sabrina Endres and Simone Leske-Helwig will oversee sales management in the central region, with Leske-Helwig taking over the management of key account managers and Endres leading the customer advisor division.
Aon has also appointed Danny Hentschel, previously regional manager east, as senior relationship officer in Germany’s eastern regions. In his new role, Hentschel will be responsible for expanding existing customer relationships and strategy in the large customer segment. He will continue to report to Harald Resche, managing director of Aon Versicherungsmakler Deutschland.
Juliane Bernards takes over the management for the eastern region. Previously she was in charge of the internal service.
Pictet Group – Senior partner Renaud de Planta will step down from Pictet’s board of partners effective 30 June 2024 and join the supervisory board of the group and the board of directors of Banque Pictet & Cie SA, effective 1 January 2025, pending regulatory approval. This follows his recent appointment to the Bank Council of the Swiss National Bank.
Marc Pictet will take over from Renaud de Planta as senior partner on 1 July 2024.
Planta joined Pictet in 1998 as managing partner and became its senior partner in 2019. Over the past quarter century, he has had a pivotal role in the development of the firm, helping it grow from around 1,000 employees in nine offices managing assets of CHF100bn to 5,300 employees in 30 offices managing assets over CHF630bn.
Planta spearheaded the development of Pictet’s asset management business, taking it from a small unit with less than CHF20bn in assets to the second largest Swiss provider with more than CHF230bn in assets. Today the business serves the most sophisticated global clients and is a key driver of success for the group
Among many other contributions, Planta also successfully led the response of Pictet to a number of external crises including the great financial crisis of 2008 and the recent COVID pandemic.
Marc Pictet joined Pictet in 2001 and has been a managing partner of the group since 2011. He currently co-heads Pictet Wealth Management and oversees the corporate office, the department that handles the strategic projects of the group. He is also chair of the supervisory board of Bank Pictet & Cie (Europe) AG. Previously he led Pictet Asset Services and technology and operations, among other responsibilities.
Sienna Investment Managers – Michael Dobson is joining Sienna Investment Managers after being elected chair of the board by the board of directors, replacing Ian Gallienne, CEO of Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL).
Dobson brings four decades of leadership experience as he has held multiple roles across several asset management companies, as well as experience providing independent advice to management teams. Sienna IM expressed that this appointment was the next logical step for its development.
Nuveen – Kyrylo Sukhanenko has joined as managing director, head of UK insurance. Based in London, he will be responsible for further developing Nuveen’s UK insurance client segment, playing a pivotal role in the firm’s product development, client and marketing strategy.
Sukhanenko will report into Brian Schaper, managing director, business development, global client group.
Sukhanenko has extensive experience in employing a broad suite of asset classes and investment solutions to a range of insurers. He joins Nuveen following 13 years at BlackRock, where he was most recently co-head of business development for its UK insurance business, structuring and delivering investment and risk solutions to insurers. Prior to this, he worked as an analyst within Merrill Lynch’s emerging market equity sales team.
BVK – Germany’s largest pension scheme has named Christian Ebersperger as board member, responsible for the professional pension scheme and company pension department. This adds to his previous responsibility as head of the departments of eight pension schemes.
Ebersperger succeeds Ulrich Böger, who retired at the end of September. Stefan Müller, who has been a member of the board since 2020, will take over the position of deputy chair of the board from Böger.
Broadstone – The consultancy has appointed Richard Sweetman as a senior consultant in its employee benefits consulting (EBC) division. He joins Broadstone’s defined contribution (DC) and workplace savings team, led by Damon Hopkins.
Sweetman joins Broadstone with more than 30 years of experience at Mercer and then Willis Towers Watson advising clients on DC pensions, employee benefits and financial wellbeing. His expertise varies across all types of DC pension arrangements including large complex trust-based schemes, master-trusts and group personal pensions with experience in proposition development and business development.
K3 – The market-leading advisory business to the fiduciary management market has announced the appointment of John Mayer as senior actuarial consultant.
With 25 years of experience in qualified actuary work, Mayer joins from Isio where he was a principal actuary. He has also held previous positions with KPMG and PwC.
At K3 Mayer will be playing a critical role in leading transactions, while also offering expert advice to achieve the best results for pension schemes.
KZVK – The German provider of occupational pensions for employees of the Catholic Church and charitable sectors, Kirchliche Zusatzversorgungskasse des Verbandes der Diözesen Deutschlands (KZVK), has appointed Sebastian Leipert as new member of the Board of Directors, responsible for the Operations department, effective on November 1.Leipert succeeds Christian Loh, who was appointed as chair of the board. He is an expert in company pension schemes, operations and IT, and actuary. He has worked as head of pension management at adesso insurance solutions. Most recently he was head of company pension schemes and IT services at HDI Lebensversicherung.
Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) – Teh associaiton will appoint two new members to its board and four new members to its policy board.
Jamie Fiveash from Smart Pension and Laura Myers from LCP will join the PLSA board.
The board’s aim is to ensure the PLSA can deliver on its mission to help everyone achieve a better income in retirement. It sets strategy, allocates resources, reviews financial performance and monitors the effectiveness of lobbying, events, training and membership products and services.
In addition to the board appointments, Alan Howard from Shell plc, Ewan McCulloch from Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, Fiona Brown from Rolls-Royce plc, and Lizzie Holliday from NOW: Pensions will join the policy board.
Formed in 2018, the PLSA policy board guides and decides on the PLSA’s public policy positions, with a remit stretching across all PLSA policy work on pensions and lifetime savings. Its goal is to shape the policy agenda for all aspects of retirement income.
Alison Hatcher, independent consultant, is stepping down from the PLSA board, and Lisa Young-Harry from HSBC Bank Pension Trust and Mel Duffield from USS will be stepping down from their positions on the policy board.
Generali – The Italian insurer has appointed Giulio Terzariol as the CEO of the newly-created division Insurance, effective from January 2024. Terzariol joins from Allianz, where he served recently as CIO and member of the board of management. In his new role, Terzariol will report directly to the CEO Philippe Donnet and will also join the group management committee of Assicurazioni Generali.
Pensions for Purpose – Richard Giles has been appointed as senior director at Pensions for Purpose. The appointment was made in alignment with the aims of accelerating the movement towards impact investments.
Giles has years of experience working in several large pension schemes in the UK, and holds multiple trustee and non-executive director positions, including chair of the investment committee at United utilities, and vice chair of the board of the Scottish Teachers Pension Scheme.
Before his appointment, Giles was serving as an advisory group member at Pensions for Purpose, but will now shift his focus to bringing pension scheme members together to improve understanding of impact investments and risks and returns.
Franklin Templeton – The global asset manager announced multiple leadership appointments in global distribution, all of which became effective 2 October 2023. These appointments were made with the intention to continue the firm’s expansion and future distribution benefits.
Matt Harrison was appointed as head of Europe and UK distribution. He has over 25 years of experience in the industry, and before this appointment Harrison was the co-head of APAC at Franklin Templeton where he has successfully developed client relationships across multiple markets. In his new role, Harrison will focus on developing the company’s distribution strategy and expanding the business throughout Europe.
Due to Harrison’s new responsibilities, Tariq Ahmad’s duties increased, resulting in his appointment as head of APAC distribution. Ahmad brings over 20 years of experience in the asset management industry and will now be responsible for APAC strategy to serve the firm’s clients who are in a critical region important for global growth.
Previously head of CEEMEA distribution, Sandeep Singh was appointed head of CEEMEA and India distribution. Singh has more than 25 years of experience in the asset management industry and has had multiple leadership roles with the firm in India and Malaysia. Going forward with his new leadership role, Singh’s responsibilities to oversee the Indian market will expand.
As a result of the appointments of Harrison and Singh, both of which now have responsibilities that were once held by the former head of EMEA distribution, Julian Ide, the firm announced Ide’s appointment as vice chair, EMEA. In his new role, Ide will take part in senior decisions at some of the largest financial institutions located in EMEA.
Bridges Fund Management – Henry Jones has been named partner and head of value creation at the firm. His appointment is expected to lead Bridges in improving impact performances of its portfolio companies.
Jones has years of experience and a great reputation in growing businesses while creating high-performing teams. He has had roles in Axiom, Aconex, and most recently as CEO of Togetherall, where his rebranding and development of platforms saw successful growth in capital.
In his new role, Jones will work with multiple professionals across the firm to ensure portfolio companies improve their revenue and margins, while enhancing social and environmental performance and ensuring value continues to be created for all shareholders and stakeholders.
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