People’s Partnership, Invesco, T. Rowe Price, P+, PLSA, GRI
People’s Partnership – The UK-based workplace pension provider has appointed Kay Smith as its new chief finance officer.
Smith, who has a proven track record of leading the financial strategies of large organisations, was previously the CFO at Amwins Global Risks Group and over a career stretching across nearly two decades, has held senior roles at companies such as Finastra and Arthur J Gallagher.
She will be responsible for overseeing the organisation’s financial strategy to support its future growth.
Smith’s appointment is confirmed less than two weeks after it was announced that The People’s Pension had surpassed £30bn in assets under management, confirming People’s Partnership as the biggest independent provider of workplace defined contribution (DC) pensions in the UK.
P+ – Mikkel Loft has started work at the Danish pension fund for academics, P+, as a director within the alternative investments department. He has replaced Helene Bastue Kjær, who left the pension fund back in May.
Loft, who reports to Michael Dalsgaard, P+’s head of alternative investments, was portfolio manager at DWS in Frankfurt from April 2020 until this October, according to his LinkedIn profile.
P+ also announced that Johannes Beyer has been appointed as head of development. Beyer comes to P+ from Scandinavian insurance company Tryg, where he worked for nearly six years.
T. Rowe Price – Ashlesha Vaishampayan has been named head of EMEA consultant relations, effective 1 January 2025. Vaishampayan will relocate to London from Singapore, where she currently leads consultant relations for the Asia ex-Japan markets. This appointment reflects the firm’s strategic commitment to enhancing its presence and engagement within the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, it stated.
Vaishampayan joined T. Rowe Price in 2019 and “has been instrumental” in leading consultant engagement in the Asian markets, the firm said. “Her tenure in Singapore was marked by the successful acquisition of new buy ratings and the enhancement of existing ones across T. Rowe Price’s diverse investment strategies,” it added.
In her new role, Vaishampayan will leverage her consultant network and wealth of knowledge on T. Rowe Price’s investment capabilities to build and strengthen consultant relationships across EMEA.
Invesco – Joe Steidl has been hired as head of UK insurance distribution. He will be based in London, reporting to Sachin Bhatia.
As head of UK insurance distribution, Steidl will be part of the UK distribution management team responsible for developing the distribution strategy and sales plan across the UK insurance channel, leading the business development of UK insurance clients.
Steidl has more than 15 years of experience in business development roles covering UK and European institutional investors and consultants and joins from Research Affiliates, a global quant investment firm where he worked for nine years, as head of EMEA institutional sales and strategic partnerships.
Kemplar & Weuder – Former ATP direct investments chief Ulrik Dan Weuder announced he and his colleague Lotte Kemplar, who was director, legal counsel, at ATP until 2021, are launching Kemplar & Weuder, a new sustainability-focused investment advice firm.
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) – Robin Hodess has been appointed as the new CEO of the corporate sustainability reporting standard-setter.
Hodess joins GRI from her current position as chief of strategy and impact for The B Team, a nonprofit initiative with a mission to catalyse new norms of corporate leadership that better serve people and planet.
Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) – The association is calling for experts from the pensions industry to apply for roles on its policy board.
Formed in 2018, the policy board is comprised of experts across the PLSA’s broad membership. It guides and decides on the PLSA’s public policy positions with a remit stretching across all aspects of policy work on pensions and lifetime savings with the goal of shaping the policy agenda for the retirement income and savings system.
Up to five vacancies have arisen due to some existing members completing their terms of appointment or changing employment.
Surrey Pension Fund head of pensions Neil Mason and West Midlands Pension Fund executive director of pensions Rachel Brothwood have completed their second terms (the maximum allowed) on the policy board. Also, Zoe Alexander, who has joined the PLSA executive as director of policy and advocacy, stepped down from representing NEST on the policy board last month to join the PLSA’s corporate board. Sarah Luheshi, formerly of the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI), will leave the policy board later this month, after retiring from her PPI role in the late summer.
On a separate note, the PLSA welcomed Euan Miller, managing director of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund, as the new chair of the local authority committee, replacing Neil Mason.
Consequently, the PLSA is looking to appoint experts from a range of schemes and pension organisations. For this round of recruitment, PLSA is specifically looking for candidates from within local authority fund, large master trust, contract-based DC and large DB or hybrid segments from within its membership.
The deadline for applications is Friday 7 February 2025. To find out the criteria for selection and how to apply, visit the PLSA website.
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