Nuveen, Mercer, Insight Investment, MFS, People’s Partnership, Nordea, IIGCC
People’s Partnership – The provider of The People’s Pension has further strengthened its rapidly growing investment team with the appointment of Phil Butler as deputy chief investment officer.
Butler joins the leading workplace pension provider from M&G, where he was a multi-asset portfolio manager in the Treasury and Investment Office. Starting his new role this week, he will be overseeing the investment operations and responsible investing teams at People’s Partnership at its London office, which opened at the start of the year.
Butler joins at a time when The People’s Pension recently reached the £30bn assets under management milestone and is expected to reach £50bn in the next four years. Earlier this year the scheme’s Trustee Board signalled its readiness to invest in private markets, due to the growing scale and expertise.
Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) – Faith Ward, chief responsible investment officer of Brunel Pension Partnership, has been reappointed as chair of the Group.
Ward has made a valuable contribution to the IIGCC’s goals and supporting investors in addressing climate risks and contributing to a net zero and climate-resilient future by 2030, Brunel stated.
Ward has been an “active and involved chair since her appointment in 2020”, leading board governance changes, speaking at COPs and other policy/thought leadership events, as well contributing to workstreams providing practical support to members, it added. The IIGCC has grown significantly over the last few years, now representing more than 400 members that collectively manage or advise on more than $65trn.
Ward said: “I am honoured to continue to serve members of IIGCC having been reappointed as chair of the board. The next few years are critical for climate action, and I look forward to working with our members to drive meaningful progress towards a sustainable future.”
MFS Investment Management – Daniel Theilen has joined as managing director of institutional sales, Germany.
Theilen will focus on promoting MFS’ broad range of fixed income and equity capabilities, attracting new clients and strengthening relationships with the German investor community.
With almost 20 years of industry experience, Theilen joins from Union Investment, where he served as director and client relationship manager. In this role, he was responsible for existing clients and new business development.
Prior to that, he worked with FERI Trust as a director of institutional clients. He began his career with Metzler Asset Management, where he held several investment roles, including head of portfolio insurance strategies.
Based in MFS’ Frankfurt office, he reports to Lars Detlefs, senior managing director of sales in the EMEA region.
Mercer – Deborah Frost has been appointed as the new chair of trustees of the Mercer Master Trust, effective from April 2025.
Frost is an experienced business leader with extensive knowledge of the employee benefits sector. She has held board director, non-executive, and executive positions in the financial sector and technology space, including as group CEO of Personal Group Holdings, an AIM-listed employee insurance and benefit provider.
Frost succeeds Alan Pickering whose term concludes in April 2025. She will join as an observer for the remainder of Q4 2024 and will officially assume the role of a trustee from January, taking on the position of chair in April 2025.
Frost joins alongside Aimée Denham of Vidett Trustee Services and Nicole Mullock of Independent Governance Group, who were appointed trustees of the Mercer Master Trust earlier in the year, to complement long-standing trustees Lisa Mundy of BESTrustees and Giles Payne of Capital Cranfield.
Nordea Asset Management – The firm has strengthened its UK-based distribution team with the addition of experienced industry professionals James Elks and Lindsay Nickerson.
Elks, who has 22 years of industry experience, has been appointed global head of investment consultant relations. With its multi-boutique structure, Nordea offers strategies across a broad range of asset classes, making it well-suited to a global client base. Most recently, Elks spent two years leading global business development at Royal London Asset Management.
In her role as director of UK institutional relations, Nickerson is tasked with reinforcing NAM’s relationships with UK clients in the defined contribution (DC) and defined benefit (DB) space. She will collaborate with clients to share Nordea’s expertise across all major asset classes – including green bonds, real assets, climate and engagement equities, liquid alternatives, and ‘Beta Plus’ strategies.
Nickerson joined Nordea after a decade at Aon, where she was an associate partner within the group’s UK DC practice. At Aon, she worked with both advisory and delegated investment clients and contributed to Aon’s internal fund manager research team.
Insight Investment – Chandra Gopinathan has been appointed as the firm’s head of responsible investment research.
Gopinathan is responsible for leading Insight’s sustainability-related research activities and integrating research findings to improve decision making. He is based in London and reports to Robert Sawbridge, head of responsible investment.
Prior to joining Insight, Gopinathan was a senior investment manager at Railpen where he co-led the credit strategy and manager selection team, analysing credit risk for inclusion in the investment process.
He has played a leading role in developing industry guidelines for bondholders with regard to sustainability issues, chairing both the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) Bondholder Stewardship working group and the Asset Owner Working Group of the Transition Pathway Initiative.
Nuveen Private Capital – Arcmont Asset Management and Churchill Asset Management, the European and US asset management companies of Nuveen Private Capital, have announced the continued expansion of its European client coverage capabilities with the appointment of Otto Donner as head of Nordics business development.
Donner brings more than 20 years of regional expertise and relationships to the role, which will focus on building and strengthening Nuveen Private Capital’s coverage and private markets solutions across the Nordics. He will be based in Arcmont’s office in Stockholm, Sweden.
Previously, Donner was head of Nordics, sales and business development at M&G Investments, where he led business development in the Nordic region for four years with a focus on pension funds, insurance companies and banks. Prior to M&G, he served as director of sales and business development at BMO Global Asset Management and was responsible for building institutional investor relationships in the Nordic region.
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