Law Debenture, Broadstone, SYPA, AXA IM, PPF, Railpen, Apex Group, AFII, Climate AM, IVS, M&G
Railpen – The firm that manages the £34bn railways pension schemes has appointed Busola Sodeinde and Sue Amies-King to its board as independent non-executive directors.
As well as founding her own educational technology business, Sodeinde holds several non-executive director roles and chair positions including trustee governor of the audit and risk committee for the Church Commissioners, chair of the audit committee for TR Property Investment Trust (FTSE 250), and the people and culture committee for the Scouts Association. She is a passionate advocate for social causes and minority female leaders, championing the benefits that diversity can bring to engagement and meaningful debates that lead to quality decision-making.
Amies-King has led multiple large-scale transformations as a senior executive, managing director, and CEO within both the financial services and etilities sectors. She is a non-executive director at Aviva Investors and Hastings Insurance, where she also chairs the risk and conduct committees, respectively.
South Yorkshire Pensions Authority (SYPA) – Sharon Smith, one of the longest-serving employees at SYPA, will retire in December after an extraordinary 40-year career with the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
Smith’s achievements were recognised at her final authority meeting this week with a presentation made by Jayne Dunn, chair of the authority.
Smith began her journey in 1984 when she joined South Yorkshire County Council as a trainee investment analyst straight from university. Over the years, “she has played a pivotal role in managing the pension fund’s investments, demonstrating an exceptional performance track record that would rival many in the financial sector”, said SYPA.
Throughout her tenure, Smith has held various roles within the investment team, including managing UK and emerging market equities, all from her desk in Barnsley and is now assistant director -investment strategy. “Her success and longevity in a predominantly male-dominated industry make her a trailblazer for women in finance,” the Authority added.
Smith will hand over the reins to her successor who joins the Authority in October 2024.
Pension Protection Fund (PPF) – Simon Gadd and Sonia Gogna have joined the PPF’s board as non-executive directors from 1 September.
PPF chair Kate Jones welcomed the duo’s extensive financial services, investment and risk expertise and added: “This is an important juncture for the PPF with the appointment earlier this year of our new CEO Michelle Ostermann and our work to create our next Strategic Plan, which will set out our vision and priorities for the next phase of our growth.”
Gadd brings more than 35 years of executive and non-executive financial services experience gained through a variety of leadership roles at L&G, with a particular focus on risk management.
Gogna’s extensive financial, actuarial, pensions and investment experience from her executive career at abrdn and Aon, amongst other organisations, brings a strong actuarial and regulatory focus.
AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) – Dominic Byrne has been hired as the firm’s new head of global equities for AXA IM Core. Byrne will report to Jeroen Bos, global head of equities, and will be based in London.
Byrne will lead the wider global equity team to achieve its strategic goals and manage several global equity portfolios at AXA IM, together with the expanding global equity team. His appointment builds on the recent hires in the team of Stephanie Li, who will focus on Asia equities, and Koichiro Nanaumi, who will focus on Japan equities.
Byrne, who has more than 20 years of investment experience, was previously deputy head of developed market equities at abrdn and has been managing global equity portfolios since 2009, with a recent focus on sustainability.
Broadstone – The independent financial services consultancy has appointed Dalbir Singh as an actuarial director.
With nearly 20 years of experience in the pensions industry, Singh brings a wealth of expertise and a proven track record of delivering strategic advice to trustee and corporate clients.
Singh provides a holistic perspective and a broad range of experience advising schemes ranging from £15m to £15bn, with a variety of governance structures at different stages of their journey.
He joins from WTW and in his new role will manage a portfolio of scheme actuary clients. Singh will be based across both Broadstone’s newly opened central Birmingham office and the established Redditch office, where he will play a vital role in the continued development and expansion of Broadstone’s services.
Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute (AFII) – The research organisation empowering fixed-income investors to drive the climate transition has announced the appointment of Aline Gustafsson as chair of its board.
Gustafsson currently serves as the managing director and editor of NordSIP, a publication on sustainable investment for professional investors in the Nordics. Previous roles include being a long/short equity hedge fund portfolio manager, buy-side analyst, and both chief financial officer and chief operating officer at several asset management firms.
Law Debenture – The leading provider of independent professional services has appointed Helen Tabiner as a pensions trustee.
Tabiner brings a wealth of experience to the Law Debenture team, having previously spent 10 years at Eversheds Sutherland, most recently as a principal associate, following seven years at DLA Piper. She has a strong background working with both corporate and trustee clients of all sizes, ranging from multi-billion pound funds to sub-£20m funds; advising on all aspects of law and strategy throughout the full lifecycle of schemes across both defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC).
Tabiner will work with pensions managing director Sankar Mahalingham and the team of 50+ pension professionals at Law Debenture.
Apex Group – The global financial services provider has announced the appointment of Bill Jangra as a pensions trustee. He brings more than 25 years of extensive experience in professional trusteeship, pension management, administration, and governance, both in house and outsourced, as well as a deep understanding of broader employee benefits. He is accredited as a trustee in both the UK and Ireland.
Before joining Apex Group, Jangra held roles as a professional trustee at Law Debenture and served as head of pensions for Nuffield Health, where he played a key role in overseeing and managing pension scheme fiduciary obligations and stewardship.
German Institute of Pension Actuaries (IVS) – IVS has appointed Stefan Oecking as its new chair. Oacking is a consultant at Mercer and a member of the managing board of Mercer Pensiosnsfonds.
The previous IVS chair, Friedemann Lucius, and Nicola Döring, also a long-time member of the IVS management board, were elected deputy chairs.
IVS has expanded its management board to nine members given the growing amount of tasks to fulfil.
M&G – The investment manager has appointed Ann-Kathrin Fuhrmann as associate director of institutional business development, effective 1 November.
In her new role, Fuhrmann will be responsible for establishing and expanding client relationships with insurance companies, pension funds and other institutional investors in Germany. She will report to Ingo Matthey, head of institutional business development in Germany and Austria.
Fuhrmann joins M&G from Bosch Pensionsfonds, where she held the position of expert in asset allocation with a focus on alternatives.
Climate Asset Management – Andrew Dyson has been named non-executive chair of the asset manager, stepping down as senior adviser role at Pollination to take on his new role with immediate effect.
Dyson was formerly chair and chief executive officer of PGIM Quantitative Solutions between 2017 and 2022, and previously also held senior roles at Affiliated Managers Group and at BlackRock. He currently sits on the boards of Adjuvo Network and New Change FX.
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