Barnett Waddingham, Fidelity International, TELA, AustralianSuper, Abrdn, NEST
Barnett Waddingham (BW) – The consultancy has appointed Helena Morrissey as non-executive chair of its management board, effective from 1 January 2025.
Morrissey joins during a period of growth for BW, and as chair will be responsible for providing independent oversight of the firm’s strategy and governance, while ensuring the board maintains the highest standards of decision-making and accountability.
She will work with senior partner Andrew Vaughan and four new managing partners — announced in the summer — who were appointed to strengthen the firm’s diversified offering across risk, insurance, and investment.
In her role at BW, Morrissey will act as a strategic sounding board for the management team, promoting open dialogue and constructive challenge while championing the firm’s commitment to service innovation, technological advancement, and cultivating talent. She will provide valuable external perspective to help drive the firm’s continued evolution while preserving its core values and culture.
Morrissey takes over the non-executive chair position from Elizabeth Renshaw-Ames, who leaves the role after six years.
NEST – The UK’s minister for pensions has made five appointments to the NEST board. These include specialists in investment management, sustainable finance, customer experience, and risk.
Appointed for his extensive experience in investment management, Michael Gordon has more than 30 years of industry experience. He currently serves as an independent director for Yarra Capital Management. His previous experience includes executive roles at Perpetual Investments, Fidelity International, BNP Paribas, and Schroders Australia, along with board experience at Total Risk Management.
Catherine Howarth joins the NEST board as a recognised leader in responsible investment. She is chief executive officer of ShareAction and a member of the Financial Conduct Authority’s sustainable finance committee. Her board experience with TPT Retirement Solutions and the Scott Trust underscores her commitment to driving positive change in the financial sector.
Faith Reynolds brings to NEST a strong commitment to using data and technology to better serve consumer needs. She has extensive experience in financial services, regulation, and open banking and smart data. Currently, she serves as a non-executive director at Fair4All Finance, sits on the government’s Smart Data Council and holds several advisory roles within industry and academia focused on innovation for public good.
Howard Walpole brings more than 35 years of experience in the insurance industry to the NEST board. As an actuary with significant risk management expertise, he has held key roles at Direct Line Group and Lloyds. He currently serves on the regulatory standards and codes committee of the Financial Reporting Council.
Stuart White has been appointed to the NEST board for his extensive experience in investment management. He is currently a board director at HSBC Global Asset Management and serves as CEO of HSBC Global AM. He has also spent the last 10 years as a trustee director of the £30bn HSBC Bank Pension Trust (UK) Limited, where he chaired the investment committee.
Fidelity International – Mark Cliff has been appointed as a new trustee of the Fidelity Master Trust (FMT) from 6 January 2025. Once appointed Cliff will embark on a three-month handover from Kim Nash, assuming the responsibilities as chair of the FMT when Nash retires, as trustee and chair, in April 2025.
Cliff is a client director at Vidett, with previous roles including head of pensions at Manchester Airport Group and as a reward director. He has been an independent trustee since 2013, with a large focus on large complex defined benefit (DB) dnd defined contribution (DC) pension schemes.
He joins from the Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM) master trust, where he has been a trustee for over four years, chairing its member experience sub-committee. Cliff brings significant experience in chair of trustee roles for DB and DC schemes, including working as chair of trustees with Debenhams and Bentley Motors.
Nash joined Fidelity as a sole trustee in December 2013 and became chair of FMT in April 2015. During her 10-year tenure, the FMT has grown into a highly successful authorised multi-employer scheme, through a period of significant regulatory change and increasing governance requirements.
Abrdn – The firm has announced personnel changes in its multi-asset and alternatives leadership team, promoting Darren Wolf to global head of multi-asset and alternative investments.
Wolf succeedsRussell Barlow, who is stepping down to take a role with a non-competing firm, after 26 years at abrdn.
In addition to Wolf’s promotion,Christian Howells has joined as head of investment specialists for multi-asset and alternatives. He most recently worked as head of product strategy for BlackRock Alternative Advisers in EMEA. He returns to abrdn having previously held senior investment and specialist roles with the firm for a large part of his 25-year career.
Irene Goh continues as deputy head of multi-asset solutions, alongside her role as head of Hong Kong, reinforcing the firm’s strong focus on Asia as a key growth region. This means abrdn now has senior multi-asset and alternatives leadership based across all three major time zones.
Centre for Development Studies – Magnus Billing, the former chief executive officer of Swedish pensions institution Alecta, is starting a new position as adviser to the Centre, which is a non-profit organisation dedicated to integrating the development finance system into global capital markets.
TELA – Mikael Kulikoff has been promoted at the Finnish pensions industry association TELA to the position of director, in charge of finance, administration and development.
Kulikoff moved into the role on 1 November, from his previous job as development manager at the lobby group. He will also continue to be responsible for tasks related to IT advocacy in the industry, and the related cooperation with TELA’s members and other stakeholders, the organisation said.
Kulikoff will report to CEO Suvi-Anne Siimes in his new position, which sees him become part of Siimes’ team.
AustralianSuper – Australia’s largest superannuation fund has announced a significant expansion of its international equities team with three senior investment management appointments based in the fund’s London office.
Over half of AustralianSuper’s £180bn in total members’ assets are currently invested in equities, with one-third of total assets (around £60bn) allocated to international equities (i.e. non-Australian equities). Approximately 30% of the international equities portfolio is currently internally managed, however AustralianSuper intends to increase this to a significant majority by 2030, aiming to create greater cost efficiency at scale and generate stronger returns to the benefit of members.
Steve Kelly has been appointed as co-head of high growth global equities and joins from AXA Investment Managers following a 27-year career at the firm where he specialised in US equities.
Anu Narula has also been appointed as co-head of high growth global equities alongside Kelly. Narula joins from Mirabaud Asset Management where he spent more than a decade, becoming head of equities in 2020 and a partner in 2022.
Colin Moar joins as senior portfolio manager, technology equities, from Barings where he was a director and investment manager in the technology sector team.
Lurse – The German consultancy has appointed Norman Dreger has managing partner, responsible for actuarial services.
In his new position, Dreger will be responsible for further developing actuarial tools for companies, pension funds, and other pension institutions. He will also lead the expansion of Lurse‘s global pensions and benefits business together with the international experts of MBWL network.
Dreger served as CEO of Mercer Germany and Mercer Austria, and chair of the supervisory board of the Mercer Pensionsfonds until 2023.
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