LGIM Holdings, Ford Motor Company, TPR, Finanstilsynet, Avida International, BPL Pensioen, NN Investment Partners, SSGA, Universal, KAS Bank, Barnett Waddingham, EIOPA, European Commission, Fidelity International 

Legal & General Investment Management – LGIM has appointed Kathleen Gallagher to its holding company’s board as non-executive director. She is already on the board of LGIM America as a non-executive director, a role she will keep. 

Gallagher was formerly the chief investment officer at Ford Motor Company, where she was responsible for investing $66bn (€53bn) in global retirement assets. Her oversight encompassed more than 68 defined benefit (DB) and 65 defined contribution plans across more than 32 countries where Ford operates, including the $41bn US fund, one of the largest corporate DB plans in the US. She also served as investment adviser to the trustee board for numerous Ford pension schemes in Europe, including in the UK.

Gallagher’s appointment boosts female representation on LGIM Holding’s board to 38%. Legal & General has a broader goal to achieve a 50/50 gender balance across its workforce by 2020. 

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) – David Fairs has been appointed to the UK regulator as its executive director for regulatory policy, analysis and advice. He will join in July and be responsible for TPR’s policy work, which includes developing material to support the implementation of legislation relating to workplace pensions, Brexit, and TPR’s initiative to improve scheme governance standards.

Fairs succeeds Andrew Warwick-Thompson, who left last year to lead LGPS Central, one of eight asset pools created by the UK’s local government pension schemes. Anthony Raymond filled the post on an interim basis and returns to his role as general counsel and director of legal services. Fairs leaves KPMG to take on his new job at TPR. He has chaired the Association of Consulting Actuaries and the Joint Industry Forum for Workplace Pensions. 

EIOPA –  The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority is looking for new members for its stakeholder groups, one of which is the Occupational Pensions Stakeholder Group (OPSG). Members serve for a period of 2.5 years and can renew their mandate once. The OPSG is currently chaired by Matti Leppälä, secretary general of PensionsEurope.

European Commission – The EU executive has put out a call for applications to join a technical expert group on sustainable finance. This group will do preparatory work for several measures outlined in the Commission’s sustainable finance action plan, which was unveiled today. This includes preparing a report providing a taxonomy for climate change mitigation and adaptation and other environmental activities and issuing a report on the design and methodology of a low carbon benchmark.

Fidelity International – Charles McKenzie, chief investment officer for fixed income is to retire at the end of 2018 after two years in the post and four years at the company. A search for his successor is underway with a view to there being an orderly transition to a new CIO for fixed income by the end of the year.

Universal Investment – Michael Reinhard will join the German fund service provider as chief operating officer in April, competing the firm’s top management team.  He joins from AXA Investment Managers in Paris, where he was global head of operations and director in charge of the group’s investment, fund and client operations worldwide. He held various management roles during a 15-year period at the asset manager. Reinhard will manage the Universal-Investment Group together with Bernd Vorbeck, CEO, and Frank Eggloff, chief financial/administrative officer. 

Danish FSA (Finanstilsynet) — Line Bergmann has been promoted at the Danish FSA (Finanstilsynet) to the position of head of department for the supervision of industry-wide occupational pension schemes and corporate pension funds. She joined the financial regulator in 2007, and has been deputy head of the department for pension funds and corporate pension funds since 2014. She replaces Carsten Brogaard, who was promoted at the beginning of this year to become one of the regulator’s four deputy directors under director general Jesper Berg. Before coming to the Danish FSA, Bergman worked for Skandia Life Insurance.

Avida International – Sarah Smart has joined the firm’s UK team as senior adviser. Smart is chair of TPT Retirement Solutions and chair of the audit committee for The Pensions Regulator, and is also a member of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Institutional Disclosure Working Group. A chartered accountant by training, she also chairs the Financial Times Pensions Governance Committee.

BPL Pensioen – Eline Lundgren has been appointed employee chair of BPL Pensioen. She will assume the position on 1 April, taking over from the employers’ chair René le Clercq. Lundgren is a member of the board of BPL on behalf of workers’ union FNV. She is also a board member of collective defined contribution funds run by ING and NN. In the past she was a director at the Vlakglas pension fund.

NN Investment Partners – Harry Horlings has been appointed director, institutional business development within the manager’s institutional relations department for the Dutch market. Horlings will deal with fiduciary services, balance sheet management, LDI and hedging strategies for Dutch pension funds, as well as with the services provided by De Nationale APF. He previously worked for 12 years at Robeco, the last five years as director of institutional business development. He has also been a board member of Robeco’s corporate pension fund since 2013.

State Street Global Advisors – Lochiel Crafter is the asset manager’s new head of global institutional business. He was previously head of Asia Pacific for SSGA, a role that will be taken over by James MacNevin, most recently chief operating officer for the region. Crafter assumes his new role from Cyrus Taraporevala, who was recently named president and chief executive officer of SSGA.

Aon – The consultancy has poached Mike Edwards from Scottish Widows as partner in its risk settlement team. Edwards was head of origination and structuring at Scottish Widows when the provider launched its bulk annuity business and oversaw completion of over £2.5bn of transactions.

Barnett Waddingham – The actuarial consultancy has appointed its first managing partner. Marcus Whitehead, previously head of investment consulting, will be responsible for the ongoing programme of growth and development across the whole business. Alex Pocock, who has been with Barnett Waddingham since 2004 and was a founding member of the firm’s investment practice, will succeed Whitehead as the head of investment consulting.

KAS BANK – The securities services provider has expanded its business development team with the appointments of James Parish as senior business development manager and Michael Callari as business development associate. Parish was most recently EMEA global custody product manager at JP Morgan, focusing on the UK pension and insurance sectors. At KAS BANK he will be responsible for growing the specialist UK pension fund business through the development of innovative fintech governance solutions for trustees.

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