Smart Pension, Osmosis, Impact Cubed, Cometa, BlackRock, AP Pension, FTN, PGGM, IA
PGGM – Lars Dijkstra, who joined PGGM as interim chief investment officer on 1 February, has been appointed as statutory director in the board of directors of PGGM Vermogensbeheer BV from 1 June. This board is chaired by CIO Geraldine Leegwater.
Dijkstra currently leads front office investment teams, which are active on global public and private markets managing assets for Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn (PFZW). He succeeds Frank Roeters van Lennep who left PGGM at the end of 2023.
Dijkstra’s primary responsibility will be to further develop the ‘3D investment strategy’ together with PFZW. This strategy aims to be able to explain the entire investment portfolio of PFZW in terms of financial returns, risks and sustainability in 2030, PGGM announced.
Earlier in his career, Dijkstra was chief sustainability officer at Van Lanschot Kempen and prior to that CIO at the same company. Before that he worked for Philips Pensionfund.
Swedish Fund Selection Agency (FTN) — Marie Wagner has been appointed as business developer at FTN, the Swedish agency which procures managers for the premium pension system’s funds marketplace.
Wagner joins from Swedish private sector trade union Unionen where she worked as a project and team manager. The FTN said that with her solid project management skills, Wagner would be important in its work to develop processes and achieve its long-term goals.
Fondo Pensione Cometa — The Italian supplementary pension fund for the metal industry has appointed Daniela Dario as a new president. Dario succeeds Riccardo Realfonzo.
The scheme has also named Giovanna Petrasso as vice president.
Dario is director of industrial relations at Federmeccanica, the federation for the metalworking Industry. Petrasso holds the position of national secretary at the union Fim-Cisl.
The new appointments are part of a review that takes place at Cometa every three financial years, which also saw the election of its delegates assembly, the board of directors and the board of auditors.
Cometa’s new board of directors will remain in office for the three-year period 2024-2026, with 12 members, equally divided between worker representatives and employer representatives.
Smart Pension — The UK-based workplace pension provider has appointed Kim Gubler as an independent trustee. She was a founding director of the Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) and has been its chair since 2019. PASA is an industry body focusing on promoting and improving the quality of administration services for UK pension schemes.
Gubler has more than 30 years of experience in the pensions industry and is a fellow of both the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) and the Pensions Advisory Service. She is an accredited professional trustee and was an independent trustee director of the Crystal Master Trust. She sits on the Pension Dashboards Programme Advisory Group and the Department for Work and Pensions’ Default Consolidator Delivery Group.
Gubler is the PMI’s principal examiner for professionalism and governance.
Nærpension/AP Pension — Pauline Holm Karlsson has been hired as the new chief executive officer of Nærpension, and will be starting the job on 1 August.
Owned by Danish pension provider AP Pension, Nærpension provides company pension schemes and related financial products.
Holm Karlsson’s most recent job was as IT development manager at Forca, the pensions administration firm owned by labour-market pension funds Lærernes Pension, PKA and Pædagogernes Pension (PBU).
AP Pension CEO Bo Normann Rasmussen said Holm Karlsson’s prior industry knowledge and insight into the use of technological solutions and close collaborative relationships was central to the role of CEO at Nærpension.
Investment Association — Three new directors have been appointed to the IA’s board of directors, which oversees the association’s activity and is made up of senior leaders from across the industry.
Joining the board are:
- Mark FitzPatrick, CEO of St James’s Place
- John McCareins, head of Northern Trust Asset Management, international
- Ann Prendergast, head of EMEA at State Street Global Advisors
The new directors are replacing Alexandra Altinger, Stephen Cohen and Nicolas Moreau.
Patrick Thomson, chair of the IA board, said between the three new appointments “they have a wealth of international industry experience and expertise that will be invaluable to the IA and its members”. He added: “The board looks forward to working with our new appointees to promote and advocate for investment management.”
The changes to the board of directors will take effect immediately.
Osmosis Investment Management — Mark Ingham has been apointed tojoin Osmosis’ quantitative research team as demand for environmental systematic strategies grows and the firm expands into emerging markets.
In his new role, Ingham will be responsible for developing and maintaining Osmosis’ quantitative research systems and models and conducting alpha-signal research in developed and emerging markets.
He has more than 15 years of experience in quantitative investing and research across different sectors and strategies. He previously spent 14 years at Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo (GMO), four as a quant analyst and 10 as a portfolio manager. During this time, Ingham helped to create and manage various funds including the GMO Quality and GMO Tactical Opportunities Funds. He was also head of the emerging equities quant team for four years.
BlackRock — Christian Hyldahl has been promoted to a new role at BlackRock, that of senior adviser to the asset management giant’s pensions and retirement business in Europe.
Hyldahl, a former CEO of Denmark’s ATP, will take on the new role in addition to his current role as head of Northern Europe at BlackRock. In the new role, Hyldahl will be a resource for the company’s staff working with institutional clients, engaging with both clients and authorities, according to the asset management firm.
Impact Cubed – The provider of ESG impact data and portfolio solutions has welcomed Nick Flanagan and Jennie Baruxakis to the team.
Flanagan joins as head of sales, having previously been at Northern Trust and DWS Group, while Baruxakis has been appointed as head of asset owner and consultant relations following a 15-year spell at London Stock Exchange Group.
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