Columbia Threadneedle Investments, Jupiter, BNP PAM, KBI, People’s Partnership, LPFA, British Business Bank, APG, NEST, PP Pension, Folksam, Allianz
London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) – The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) – with £8bn in assets and around 100,000 members – has appointed Jo Donnelly as chief executive officer.
Donnelly starts her role with the LPFA in April 2025 and joins from the Local Government Association (LGA) where she has spent four years, firstly as senior pensions secretary and, since April 2022, as head of pensions. She is also Secretary to the LGPS Scheme Advisory Board.
Donnelly replaces Robert Branagh who announced he would step down in October after almost seven years in the role.
Prior to her time at the LGA, Donnelly held pensions policy roles at HM Treasury and the Department of Health and Social Care. She began her public sector career at the Home Office in 2002.
British Business Bank – Leandros Kalisperas has been hired as chief investment officer of the British Business Bank from January 2025. Prior to that, he was CIO of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund (WYPF), based in Bradford, leading an in-house investment office managing £20bn of assets across public, private and alternatives markets for its more than 300,000 members.
Before joining WYPF, Kalisperas was head of portfolio solutions at abrdn, based in London, responsible for asset allocation, implementation and ongoing portfolio management of customised, complex mandates for a range of institutional clients. Prior to that, he spent six years at the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) in several senior investment roles supporting the development of USS’s regulated in-house investment office following the global financial crisis.
People’s Partnership – The UK workplace pension provider has appointed Allie Jenkin as its new director of customer engagement.
Jenkin joins with more than 20 years of experience in client-facing roles, having held senior leadership positions at Vanguard and Coutts. People’s Partnership’s customer engagement operations, overseeing both the customer support hub and guidance teams, Jenkin will play a pivotal role in ensuring the company continues to deliver exceptional customer service.
Jenkin brings extensive expertise in crafting client service strategies, innovation, and scaling operations. Most recently, she served as head of client service and operations at Vanguard UK, where she was instrumental in developing and growing the company’s direct-to-consumer business and led transformational and large-scale programmes.
Additionally, Victoria Willmott has been appointed as customer sodutions Director.
She will join the workplace pension provider in January having previously worked at Coutts, where she was head of client journey. In a 20-year career in customer relations and operations, she has held a number of senior roles and has previously worked at Barclays Bank and Deloitte.
APG Group – Annette Mosman has been appointed for a second term as the CEO of APG Group, the pension services provider of eight Dutch pension funds including ABP and bpfBOUW. The reappointment, effective 1 March 2025, is for a four-year term and has been approved by shareholders.
As the CEO, Mosman is directly responsible for strategy, corporate affairs, human resources and audit of APG Group. She also directly oversees the business unit that manages pension administration and the transition to the renewed pension system of the eight pension fund clients with a total of 4.6 million participants.
Prior to her appointment as the APG Group CEO on 1 March 2021, Mosman was a member of APG’s executive board as chief financial risk officer from 2018. In that role, she was responsible for finance, risk management, IT and data.
NEST Corporation – Camilla Egginton has been named as the new chief trategy and transformation officer (CSTO) of the NEST pension scheme. This role is a new addition to NEST’s executive team and signifies its commitment to being a purpose-led organisation.
Since joining NEST in 2012, Egginton has delivered in roles across the corporation, most recently as NEST’s transformation director. During her time in this role, she was instrumental in delivering NEST’s new purpose and corporate strategy and shaping an approach to transformational delivery.
Egginton will bring commercial and corporate experience to the role of CSTO at NEST Corporation, with a strategic background from a top four consulting firm and Ofgem, the energy regulator.
The creation of the CSTO role underscores the importance NEST places on ensuring its corporate strategy stays relevant and adapts with the organisation to fulfil its objective of delivering financial peace of mind for all, the firm said.
BNP Paribas Asset Management – The firm has made two appointments: Linda Fodil and Thibault Sartori have been named investment directors within the firm’s private debt team of its private assets investment division. Both are based in Paris and will report to Christophe Carrasco, head of private debt.
In line with the success of BNP Paribas European SME debt funds, which have deployed €1.7bn to finance 250 companies since 2016, the private debt team is launching, in addition to the existing senior debt offer, a direct lending strategy offering unitranche and junior debt financial instruments, with a strong sponsorship of BNP Paribas Group.
The new fund mostly targets private equity sponsor-backed corporates incorporated in Western European countries and aims to have a role of lead or co-arranger for financing midcaps posting EBITDA in the range of €5-30m.
Fodil has more than 20 years of experience in SME financing and investment. Previously, she worked for seven years at AXA Investment Managers in the private debt team as a senior investment professional and voting member of its investment committee, focused on senior debt and unitranche transactions across Europe.
Sartori has more than 10 years of experience in the direct lending industry. He was previously investment director in the private debt team of LFPI Gestion.
Additionally, Valérie Charrière-Pousse has been appointed as head of European large-cap equities, effective 1 May 2025. She will succeed Peter Abbott following his planned retirement at the end of April 2025. Abbott retires after a long and successful career spanning 40 years in the industry, including 17 years at BNPP AM.
Charrière-Pousse has more than 26 years of experience in the industry and has worked closely with Abbott since 2008 when the current investment approach was initially established. Charrière-Pousse was appointed deputy head of the team in 2023 having provided leadership to team members based in Paris since 2016.
Folksam/PP Pension – Mats Hägglund has been appointed as the new CEO of Folksam Tjänstepension, the main occupational pensions subsidiary of the Swedish insurance and pensions group Folksam.
Hägglund, who is a board member of the unit, and is head of its collective agreements and group life business, took up the role with immediate effect from 17 December, filling a gap left by departing CEO Charlotta Carlberg.
Carlberg, who has worked at Folksam for nine years, has in turn been hired by Swedish media sector pension fund PP Pension as its next CEO and is due to start work in that role next August, replacing the current CEO Kjell Norling when he retires.
Katrin Röcklinger, head of Folksam’s life business, described Hägglund as a highly-valued leader with extensive knowledge of pensions as well as broad experience within Folksam.
Hägglund’s appointment is conditional on approval from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, Folksam said.
KBI Global Investors – Eve Finn has been appointed as an independent non-executive director.
Finn has more than 20 years of experience in the field of financial services and was until late last year CEO and executive director of LGIM Managers (Europe) Limited. During her 14 years with the firm, she worked as head of portfolio construction, LDI funds and head of solutions for LGIM Investments, based in London. She worked previously for Deutsche Bank and Watson Wyatt and is a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.
Finn was elected to the Irish Funds industry association members’ council in 2021 and was formerly a member of the IFSC Funds Group, a joint government/industry group focused on investment and fund-related matters.
Jupiter Asset Management – Selina Tyler has been hired as head of UK, the latest in a series of strategic hires aimed at delivering growth, Jupiter announced.
Tyler will take up her new role in spring 2025, joining from Lombard Odier Investment Managers, where she is currently head of UK wholesale. Tyler previously held senior positions at Mirabaud Asset Management and Federated Hermes and is also a member of ACT Global Leadership Council on behalf of City Hive, the advocacy group that aims to democratise access to investing.
John Morrison will remain as interim head of UK until Tyler’s arrival, when he will resume his role as deputy head of UK, forming a strong leadership team focused on a client centric approach in Jupiter’s largest and most significant market.
Tyler’s appointment comes in a year when Jupiter has significantly strengthened its investment expertise. In November, it was announced that Niall Gallagher’s European equity team would join the firm. The acquisition of the investment teams and assets from Origin, announced in October, will increase the group’s scale in emerging markets capabilities while the arrival of investment managers Adrian Gosden and Alex Savvides has broadened expertise in UK equities.
Allianz – The insurance company has reshuffled its management teams in Germany and in Switzerland: Ruedi Kubat, currently CEO of Allianz Suisse, will become CEO of Allianz Leben, the life insurance firm and subsidiary of Allianz also providing occupational pension products, effective 1 January, 2025.
Kubat succeeds Katja de la Viña, who, for personal reasons, has decided to take on another management role within the Allianz group, moving to group strategy, marketing, and distribution, on a part-time basis.
Laura Gersch, currently chief financial officer of Allianz Versicherungs AG, becomes the new CEO of Allianz Suisse. Klaus Berge, CFO at Allianz Privaten Krankenversicherungs AG, will take on the role of CFO of Allianz Versicherungs AG on an interim basis, in addition to his current duties.
Columbia Threadneedle Investments – The global asset management group announced that Steven Bell, its chief economist in EMEA, will retire at the end of March 2025, after more than 50 years in the finance industry.
Reporting to Paul Niven, head of multi-asset solutions, EMEA, Bell is part of a 25-strong team covering strategic and tactical asset allocation, portfolio construction and manager selection. During 2024, the team began the transition process to facilitate Bell’s retirement, ensuring the team’s focus on investment outcomes, client relations and providing insights into economics and markets continues.
Niven said: “We would like to thank Steven for the significant contribution he has made to our business and our clients since joining in 2013. We all wish Steven well for the future.”
Bell’s retirement will not impact any portfolios or mandates with his responsibilities being shared across the EMEA investments team.
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