SYPA, AllianceBernstein, Redwheel, Dalriada, PIRC, ZEDRA, Achmea, AP7, Nordea, Border to Coast, Edmond de Rothschild AM
Pensions & Investment Research Consultants (PIRC) – UK-based proxy voting and stewardship provider PIRC has announced changes to its leadership team which will help position the company for its next stage of development with a renewed focus on delivering on its clients’ responsible investment principles and priorities.
The changes at PIRC will see its current director of policy, Paul Hunter, become its chief executive officer on 1 November and in April 2025 Gavin Grant, head of governance at Baillie Gifford, its new chair.
PIRC set out its founder’s plans to step back from his role as managing director next month. Alan MacDougall founded the company in 1986 and led PIRC to create the first UK-based proxy advice service in the 1990s. He will remain at PIRC as a director supporting the CEO in his new role.
PIRC’s client services director, Janice Hayward, who has worked at PIRC for more than 30 years and has been integral to PIRC’s growth, will remain in post. She will also be supporting the new CEO during the succession period and helping him to deliver his plans for PIRC.
Hunter has worked with PIRC for the past seven years most recently as director of policy. He has a strong and proven track record across PIRC’s stewardship, engagement and voting services and in delivering outcomes for clients that meet their responsible investment and ESG needs.
Border to Coast Pensions Partnership – Councillors from North Yorkshire Council and Bedford Borough Council have been elected to lead the joint committee of Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, ensuring the voice of pension committee members continues to sit at the heart of the pool’s governance.
Responsible for overseeing the performance and direction of Border to Coast, the largest Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) pool in the UK, George Jabbour and Doug McMurdo have taken on the roles of chair and vice chair, respectively.
McMurdo was previously chair of the committee. Jabbour previously worked at Goldman Sachs.
The joint committee is comprised of a representative from each of Border to Coast’s partner funds, its only shareholders and customers.
Dalriada Trustees – Helen Scothern has been appointed as a senior professional trustee to the firm.
Scothern joins from Cooper Parry, where she served as a pensions audit associate partner and led the firm’s pension audit team. She was also involved in Cooper Parry’s role on the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) audit panel. Prior to this, she worked as a pensions audit director and senior audit manager at the firm, which she joined in 1997.
Scothern brings more than 27 years of experience managing a large portfolio of pension scheme clients. Her expertise has enabled her to successfully complete projects for schemes under often challenging circumstances. She also played a key role in supporting the successful Fraud Compensation Fund claim on behalf of the members of the three Norton Motorcycle pension schemes.
Scothern will be based in the Midlands and work across Dalriada’s regions, with a focus on business development and building a portfolio of trustee appointments.
ZEDRA – The firm has appointed Rachael Fortescue to the newly-created role of global head of pensions and incentives.
This key appointment comes amid continued growth for the business with an expanding, collaborative team of experts across multiple disciplines and locations. Fortescue will be focused on bringing together the collective experience of the team to continue delivering exceptional value and solutions that serve clients’ best interests.
Fortescue has more than 30 years of experience in the pensions industry across a variety of specialist roles including chair of trustees, senior trustee executive, pensions manager and governance specialist.
AllianceBernstein – The asset management firm has opened an office in Dublin and has appointed Phelim Keogan as country head. The expansion is part of the firm’s strategic plan to grow and strengthen its portfolio management presence across the European Union.
Keogan, who joined AB in February 2024, will oversee the activities of a specialist team based in the Dublin office. The team in Dublin will provide compliance, risk and investment oversight for its portfolio management services in AB offices across the EU as well as a project management office for the wider EMEA region.
Nordea – Martin Persson has been appointed head of asset and wealth management at the Nordic banking group, replacing Snorre Storset, who is stepping down from the role after nine years, the company announced.
Persson is currently head of large corporates and institutions at Nordea. Petteri Änkilä, the CEO of Nordea Life & Pension, has been appointed as Persson’s successor in that role, Nordea announced, adding that these changes, which still depend on approval from authorities, are taking effect on 1 January 2025.
South Yorkshire Pensions Authority (SYPA) – The public body responsible for running the £11.1bn South Yorkshire Pension Fund has appointed Jonathan Hunt to join Aoifinn Devitt to complete the Authority’s team of independent investment advisers.
The independent advisers play an important role in providing challenge to the Authority’s internal team in the development of the investment strategy and provide additional knowledge and experience to assist in the oversight of fund manager performance including that of Border to Coast, which now manages nearly 80% of the Authority’s assets.
Hunt brings a wealth of experience to role, as both an adviser and investment banker. He brings significant expertise from his role as chief investment officer for multiple Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds, where he advised on economic and strategic asset allocation, corporate governance, and risk management. He has a high level of knowledge of asset classes and has a background in corporate finance, having worked across both public and private sectors.
Hunt also brings a wealth of experience in advising pension funds, helping to shape policies, analyse investment opportunities, and monitor the performance of asset managers. His strategic advisory skills and understanding of stakeholder needs make him well-equipped to provide insightful and tailored guidance to SYPA.
Achmea Investment Management – Olaf van den Heuvel will join pension the Dutch pension asset manager as director of investments on 1 December. He will succeed Rogier Krens who recently left his post.
Van den Heuvel is currently CIO Netherlands at Aegon Asset Management, where he has been working for 25 years in several roles.
AP7 – Ossian Ekdahl has been appointed by the Swedish government as a new member of the board of AP7, the state pension fund which operates the default option in the premium pension system.
Ekdahl previously worked at AP1, one of Sweden’s five national pensions buffer funds, for 24 years, until August 2023. He is replacing Roine Vestman, professor of economics at Stockholm University, on the nine-person board of AP7.
Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management – Melinda Käsdorf has been appointed as head of marketing private markets, based in Paris and reporting to global head of marketing and products Rupert Pybus. Käsdorf will be responsible for developing and implementing a tailored marketing strategy for Edmond de Rothschild’s private markets franchise with €21.8bn in assets under management.
As the company’s main ambassador within the private markets industry, Käsdorf will orchestrate the development of the global marketing strategy for this business segment. In her new role, she will oversee marketing initiatives for the entire range of funds, mandates, and partnerships within Edmond de Rothschild’s private markets investment platforms, including private equity, real estate investment management and infrastructure debt.
In this capacity, Käsdorf will closely collaborate with the sales teams, fund management, and communications teams to drive growth in the private markets business and enhance the group’s footprint in the illiquid assets space. She will also work closely with product experts and develop relationships with strategic partners to support fundraising efforts.
With more than 20 years of experience in marketing and financial analysis within leading financial institutions, Käsdorf brings valuable expertise to Edmond de Rothschild. Prior to joining the group, she served since 2019 as marketing director at BlackRock for France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, strengthening the brand among professional investors in the region.
Redwheel – The specialist independent investment manager has appointed Nandita Sahgal, James Kinsbrook and Raviraj Salecha to form its new Redwheel emerging markets impact opportunities team, focused on private markets.
Led by Sahgal, the team has over 40 years of combined experience. All three have worked together for the past six years executing energy transition investment strategies across diverse technologies in emerging Asia at EM Impact Capital and at ThomasLloyd Group. They have an established track record managing private equity investments in energy transition projects across emerging Asia.
At Redwheel, the new team will focus on investing in mid-market private infrastructure companies across three key sectors – energy generation and storage, transport and mobility, and circular economy in emerging Asia ex. China. The launch of the Redwheel EM Impact Opportunities Fund (subject to regulatory approval) will follow the appointments.
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