Aon, Brown Advisory, Cardano, NOW: Pensions, Lloyds, SEI, DWS, IFM Investors, Schroders
IFM Investors – The global investment manager owned by Australian pension funds has appointed Rekha Misra as its global head of product strategy and innovation.
Misra has more than two decades of experience working in the asset management industry globally, including most recently as the global chief operating officer at WTW (formerly Willis Towers Watson), where she was responsible for the global operating platform of the investments business, supporting in excess of $3trn of assets under advice and $175bn of assets under management.
Prior to WTW, Misra was global COO at Holland Capital Management, and has held senior positions at Barclays Funds and Advisory, and Credit Suisse Asset Management.
Based in London, Misra will report to chief strategy officer Luba Nikulina and lead the evolution of IFM’s global product capabilities through enhancing the firm’s product development strategy, identifying new market opportunities, and leading innovative initiatives to enhance its investment solutions, it said.
Aon – Geoff Bauer has joined the firm as a partner in its investment team to advise trustees and corporate sponsors of UK defined benefit plans with a focus on insurance, energy, charity and endowment clients. Bauer joins Aon from Mercer where he spent 16 years, latterly as a senior principal in the multinational client segment and as UK leader of the global pensions management proposition.
Brown Advisory – Sian Westerman, Jasmine Whitbread and Robin Niblett have been appointed to the firm’s international advisory board.
Westerman brings extensive experience as an investment banker at Rothschild & Co, where she spent a considerable part of her career advising corporates and private equity on mergers, acquisitions and disposals. She remains a senior adviser at Rothschild & Co, helping to further the objectives of worldwide clients in the UK and APAC countries.
Whitbread’s has over 20 years of experience in sustainability-related issues. She has been chief executive officer of Save the Children and of London First and a non-executive director of BT where she chaired the digital impact and sustainability committee. Whitbread currently chairs the governance and sustainability committee of Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, is on the board of WPP and chairs Travis Perkins.
Niblett joined from Chatham House, a world-leading policy institute, where he was CEO for 15 years. Under his leadership, Chatham House tripled in size, significantly expanding its coverage of international political developments. Niblett is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Geopolitics and served as its chair from 2020-22.
Cardano/NOW: Pensions – Keith Guthrie has been appointed as head of sustainability for the UK at the consultancy and for NOW:Pensions. He previously held the role of deputy chief investment officer at Cardano Investments. Guthrie will also join Cardano’s sustainability group headed by Martine Snoek.
As part of the sustainability group, and a partner in the business Guthrie will take on responsibility to represent Cardano and NOW:Pensions in the UK from the board perspective of sustainability, with continued emphasis on integration with the investment teams.
Schroders Deutschland – Joachim Nareike, head of mutual funds in Germany and Austria, Charles Neus, head of retirement solutions, and Carlos Böhles, head of institutional sales in Germany and Austria, are leaving the German branch of the UK asset manager due to different views on the future strategic direction of the company.
Schroders will realign its client relationship business in Germany to set the course for a deeper integration of all departments, it said in a statement. The asset manager will inform of the new members of the team in due course, it added.
Alexander Prawitz, head of Schroder Investment Management (Europe) S.A., German Branch, said: “In order to support our clients to overcome challenges when investing, it is necessary to offer a service that brings together all of our knowledge, from Schroders Group, tailored [for clients]. To achieve this goal we will rely on a greater integration of the departments with their experts. We think in terms of teams, where everyone brings his or her own specific knowledge in customer relationship.”
SEI Investments – David Hinton has been appointed as COO reporting to CEO Jim London. Hinton will be responsible for managing the firm’s operations, technology, and the delivery of services.
With more than 15 years’ experience in financial services, Hinton most recently served as deputy COO for FNZ Group, where he was responsible for managing strategic platform operations. Prior to FNZ Group, he held numerous leadership roles at Barclays, including business banking lending CIO, head of wealth and investment management operations, and head of platform and service management.
DWS Group – Angela Maragkopoulou will leave her role as COO by mutual agreement effective at the end of 2023 and “move on to embrace new challenges”, according to DWS.Rafael Otero will join DWS as COO, effective 1 January 2024. He will report to chief financial officer Markus Kobler, who, for the time being, will assume board responsibility for the chief operating office.
Maragkopoulou, who has significant expertise in developing future IT strategies in the fields of cloud technology, data management and AI, joined DWS in January 2023 from Deutsche Telekom IT GmbH, where she had previously served as chief information officer B2B and senior vice president B2B and data analytics. Before that she spent 19 years in various national and international leadership roles at Vodafone.
Otero joins from Deutsche Bank, where he most recently served as chief information technology officer and chief product officer for the corporate bank and drove the agile transformation of the division to align product, operations and technology. Prior to that, he co-founded many companies including Payleven, a mobile payment company.
Lloyds Banking Group – Kevin Doran has been appointed to the new role of CIO for Scottish Widows and the group’s insurance, pensions and investments business. Doran joins from AJ Bell, where he was managing director of D2C and investments.
Prior to AJ Bell, Doran worked at KBL European Private Bankers as group head of strategy and research.
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