Preventable Surprises, PME, Aegon, Achmea, BPL, ABP, Kempen Capital Management, Söderberg, Deloitte, M&G Investments, NN IP, J O Hambro, AXA IM, GSAM, PGB, PPCmetrics, Ancala, Folksam

Preventable Surprises – Jérôme Tagger has been appointed chief executive officer of the think tank focused on systemic environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks in the financial sector. Tagger will lead on the organisation’s next phase of growth with effect from 1 January. Mike Musuraca will support the transition as chair of the board, taking over founder Raj Thamotheram, who is also a regular columnist for IPE magazine.

Tagger has a wealth of previous roles at organisations that “help the economy make proactive choices about long term ESG trends,” according to a statement about his appointment. He was a director at the Global Impact Investing Network, the founding chief operating officer of the United Nations-backed Principles for Responsible Investment, head of research at Eurosif and chief revenue officer at ImpactAlpha. He most recently advised UNEP FI’s Positive Impact Initiative and the World Benchmarking Alliance.

Musuraca is an independent pension consultant, working with labour groups in the US. He has served as trustee of the New York City Employees Retirement System and has been a managing director at Blue Wolf Capital Management.

Thamotheram said: “I started Preventable Surprises to help ensure investors took their share of responsibility for the climate crisis and other ESG-related systemic financial risks. With 50% of global assets now committed to ESG, and growing awareness of the costs of ‘greenwish’, this mission is more important than ever.”

PME – The €55bn Dutch sector scheme for metal-working and electro-technical engineering (PME) has appointed Nicole Beuken as its new independent chair as of 1 January. She is to succeed Franswillem Briët, who stepped down on 1 September. Beuken has been CEO of the €459bn civil service scheme ABP for more than 11 years. Currently, she is non-executive trustee at the €29bn Rabobank Pensioenfonds and chair of the supervisory board (RvT) of the €33bn pension fund for the road and inland shipping sectors (Vervoer). However, she said she will step down from the two latter positions.

Aegon – The Dutch insurer has named Raymond Endenburg as director of insured pensions as of 1 January. He will succeed Paul van Everloo, who is to take over the position of Ernst de Bie as CEO of pensions provider and Aegon subsidiary TKP Pensioen. Endenburg already works at Aegon’s pensions business, where he has been responsible for operational account management of business clients since last year. Prior to this, he worked at insurer Nationale-Nederlanden for 21 years. He left as commercial manager. Endenburg’s appointment is subject to the advice of Aegon’s central works council (COR).

Achmea – Frans van der Ent will step down as chair of Achmea’s division Pensions & Life next spring to continue his career elsewhere. The Dutch insurer explained that the change was part of its plan to reduce its executive team, following its decision to cease selling life and pensions insurance. Van der Ent joined Achmea in 2007, where he started as CEO of Achmea’s operation in Romania, and went on to become director of income insurance. Prior to this, he worked at ING and Nationale-Nederlanden.

Separately, the insurer has appointed Lex Kloosterman as a member of supervisory board (RvC). He succeeds Joke van Lonkhuijzen, who stepped down as a supervisory director earlier this year. Achmea said Kloosterman has extensive experience in executive and supervisory roles in the financial sector. He has held successive roles at ABN AMRO, Fortis and Rabobank. His appointment is for a four-year period.

In addition, Bianca Tetteroo has been named as vice-chair of Achmea’s executive board as of 1 January. She joined Achmea in 2009 and has been an executive board member since 2015. Tetteroo has executive responsibilities for Zilveren Kruis, Achmea IT, Achmea Pensioenservices, Achmea IM and Syntrus Achmea Real Estate & Finance.

The current members of Achmea’s RvC are Aad Veenman (chair), Wim de Weijer (vice-chair), Jan van den Berg, Petri Hofsté, Roelof Joosten, Lex Kloosterman, Mijntje Lückerath, Lineke Sneller and Roel Wijmenga.

BPL – Trudy van der Kloet has started as a member of the supervisory board (RvT) of the €23bn Dutch sector scheme for agriculture (BPL). She will focus on risk management and acturial matters. Currently, Van der Kloet is senior risk manager at civil service scheme ABP. She has been supervisor of large pension funds at regulator De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) between 2010 and 2017.

Kempen Capital Management – Julie Alexander has joined the Dutch asset manager as a business development director in the UK, where providers are responding to significant changes in the fiduciary management industry. In her previous position, Alexander worked for 12 years as a senior investment consultant for Willis Towers Watson, where she focused predominantly on advising defined contribution and defined benefit schemes. before this she worked for Coal Pension Trustees Services and Barclays Capital.

Söderberg – Swedish pensions consultancy Söderberg & Partners has established a board for its Dutch subsidiaries Montae, Rivez and MijnGeldZaken. The one-tier board will be chaired by Jan Nijssen, senior partner at Montae, in a non-executive role. Roland Goldman, who is to become CEO of Söderberg Netherlands, has been appointed as executive member. Mike van Engelen – founder of and senior partner at Montae – has been named as chief business developement officer and executive trustee. Gustaf Rentzhog – co-founder of Söderberg - Samuel Kjellberg Lindfors and Mårten Sundling are to become non-executive board members.

Deloitte – Marieke van Eenennaam is to start as partner at consultancy Deloitte as of 1 January, tasked with transformation counselling in the market for pensions and insurance. She joins from EY, where she is an associate partner.

M&G Investments – The UK asset manager has appointed Mark Cornelis as associate director business development. He is to liaise with M&G’s institutional clients from its office in Amsterdam. He has been adviser for worldwide equity at Citigroup and has had positions at Société Générale in London, as well as asset manager Lyxor in Paris.

NN Investment Partners – Niels Bodenheim has been appointed as head of alternative credit at NN IP as of 13 January 2020. He will be responsible for the €40bn platform comprising corporate debt, residential mortgages, commercial real estate lending, ECA/government loans as well as infrastructure debt/project finance. Bodenheim will report to Valentijn van Nieuwenhuijzen, CIO at NN IP.

Bodenheim joins from bFinance, where he was senior director private markets, responsible for private debt, overseeing the company’s credit research services such as direct lending, real estate and infrastructure. Prior to this, he spent 14 years at General Electric in various executive roles across GE Capital, Mubadala GE Capital, GE Corporate Finance Bank and GE Healthcare Financial Services, based in the UK and US.

J O Hambro Capital Management  – The active asset manager has poached from Hermes Investment Management to appoint a global equity impact investment team. Tim Crockford, who co-launched the Hermes Impact Opportunities Equity Fund in December 2017, will lead the new JOHCM team, which also comprises Mohsin Ahmad, Maxime Le Floch and Maxine Wille, who were analysts on Hermes’ impact opportunities team.

With the new team in place, JOHCM is due to launch a Global Equity Impact strategy in the second half of 2020 through its socially responsible and impact investment affiliate Regnan.

A spokesperson for Hermes confirmed the departures, and said Martin Todd, European equities portfolio manager, and Mark Sherlock, head of US equities, have assumed co-management responsibilities for the Hermes Impact Opportunities for an interim period while a successor for Crockford was finalised.

AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets – The real asset manager has appointed Laurent Lavergne as global head of asset management and development, effective 1 January 2020. As a result of the appointment Timothé Rauly will become the sole head fund management.

Lavergne, who is currently co-head of fund management alongside Rauly, and already sits on the AXA IM - Real Assets board, will replace Andrew Stainer who has made the personal decision to move back to his home country of Australia, where his family is based. Stainer will remain actively involved with AXA IM - Real Assets as a strategic advisor, reporting directly to CEO Isabelle Scemama, but will step down from the management board.

In order to ensure a smooth transition of his role to LAvergne and afford Rauly time to take full responsibility for AXA IM - Real Assets’ Fund Management function, Stainer will spend approximately half his time in Europe during this period of transition. The day-to-day operations of the asset management and development teams are unaffected.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management – Niam Whooley has been appointed to a newly created sustainability-related role in GSAM’s investment grade fixed income team in London. According to a statement, she will work with the asset manager’s corporate research analysts to drive better identification of material ESG and sustainability-related themes across GSAM’s coverage universe. It also said she would help foster improved engagement on ESG-related themes across GSAM’s investments. 

Whooley joins GSAM from PIMCO, where she was part of the firm’s ESG executive leadership committee and head of PIMCO’s ESG desk. Before that she was a director of ESG equity research at Société Générale. She has participated in several industry-wide ESG initiatives, including the Principles for Responsible Investment’s SDG advisory committee and bondholder engagement working group.

PGB – Daan Heijting is to leave as director of PGB Pensioendiensten, the asset manager and pensions provider of the €30bn Dutch multi-sector scheme PGB. He has been appointed as partner of The Executive Network, where he will focus on attracting and selecting trustees, executives and supervisors for the pensions sector.

For the past six and a half years, Heijting made a significant contribution to the modernisation of the organisation, co-operation with the pension fund and introduced innovations, including balance management, according to PGB. Prior to this, Heijting was director of the €30bn ING Pensioenfonds and co-director at the €6.7bn pension fund PNO Media. The provider has yet to name a successor.

PPCmetrics – Luzius Neubert has been promoted to partner at the Swiss consultancy. He has been with the firm in various roles since 2017, most recently as managing director for investment consulting and controlling. His areas of expertise include sustainable investing, and he is co-author of the annual Swiss Foundations Benchmark Report publication.

Ancala Partners – Enrico Loewenthal has been appointment as vice president. He joins the investment team at Ancala as part of its continued expansion into mid-market infrastructure opportunities in Europe. In his new role, Loewenthal will assist with sourcing, analysing, executing and asset managing of investments in Europe.

Before joining Ancala, Loewenthal spent five years at Petroleum Equity working on real asset investments with a focus on oil and gas, infrastructure and industrials. He also worked for Barclays Natural Resource Investments, a principal investing team within Barclays, where he focused on the energy sector.

Folksam — The Swedish pensions and insurance group has appointed its interim CEO Ylva Wessén to the top role permanently. She was chosen after “a good and solid recruitment process with many qualified candidates, both internal and external,” according to Lars Ericson, chair of the group’s life insurance arm. Wessén has been acting chief since the fund’s previous CEO Jens Henriksson left to head up scandal-hit Swedbank earlier this year. She has worked for Folksam since 2007 in various managerial roles including as head of risk and compliance at the group’s general insurance division, as well as group head of staff and group deputy CEO.

Topics