PGGM, Pensioen Federatie, AP3, Worthwhile Capital Partners, HSBC Global Asset Management, Mercer, Arkitekternes Pensionskasse, Varma, APG, RWC, Invesco, Folksam Liv

PGGM – Patrick Groenendijk (right) has joined as head of fiduciary advice at the Dutch asset manager PGGM as of 1 May. His core task is advising the €217bn healthcare scheme PFZW, PGGM’s main client.

Groenendijk succeeds Sander van Stijn, who has become head of external management for PGGM’s multi-manager operations. Van Stijn in turn took over from Jan Willem Baan, who has retired.

Groenendijk joins from Shell Asset Management Company, where he was head of strategy for the past two years. Prior to this, he worked as global head of equity strategy and senior investment client officer at Northern Trust for three years. He was chief investment officer at the €28bn Dutch sector pension fund for private transport, Vervoer, for an eight-year period.

Separately, Dirk Jan Sloots, director of finance and control at PGGM, is to leave for a new job as chief financial and risk officer at care insurer Menzis as of 1 August. Sloots has worked for PGGM for 17 years. Between 2012 and 2015, he was financial director at the low-cost defined contribution vehicle Rabo PGGM PPI, jointly run by PGGM and Rabobank.

Pensions Federation – Gerard Riemen, director of the Dutch Pensions Federation, has announced his departure “for a new challenge” as of 1 November. By then, he will have been at the helm for 11 years.

He started as director of the Association of Industry-wide Pensions Funds (VB), where he succeeded Peter Borgdorff who became director of the €217bn healthcare scheme PFZW. VB subsequently merged with the industry organisations for company pension funds and for occupational pensions in 2010.

Between 1990 and 2008, Riemen worked at the Dutch ministry for social affairs, leaving as head of pensions policy. In this job, he was involved in setting up the new financial assessment framework (nFTK).

AP3 – Kerim Kaskal, acting CIO of Swedish national pension fund AP3, is soon to leave the fund to join Nordic sustainability-focused asset manager Worthwhile Capital Partners as a senior partner from 3 June.

Kaskal has been acting CIO at AP3 since the death of the fund’s previous investment chief, Mårten Lindeborg, in August last year. Kaskal will be replaced at AP3 by Pablo Bernengo in November, who will join from Öhman Fonder.

Kaskal previously co-founded Swedish asset manager Ambrosia Fonder, where he worked as portfolio manager, as well as Nektar Asset Management, a Brummer & Partners hedge fund.

HSBC Global Asset Management – Global CIO Chris Cheetham is to retire from HSBC GAM after 16 years with the company and 40 years in financial services. Sridhar Chandrasekharan, global CEO, said Cheetham would stay in the role for a short period to help the transition of responsibilities to a successor.

Chandrasekharan praised Cheetham’s “significant contributions” to the $455.2bn (€408.8bn) asset manager. “Chris has led the creation of a global investment platform, the expansion into new asset classes and the nurturing of a strong investment team, all of which has helped us deliver a high standard of service to our clients globally,” the CEO said.

Cheetham is also a trustee on the board of the UK’s Mineworkers’ Pension Scheme, and was appointed as a non-executive director of the Pension Protection Fund in April 2018.

Mercer – Jeffrey Dissmann and Tobias Ripka have taken over leadership of Mercer Germany’s investment consultancy division. Dissmann has been with Mercer since 2009 and was most recently head of the wealth strategy group in Germany, while Ripka has been with the consultancy since 2005. He has also worked for Mercer’s alternative investment boutique in London and the private markets business in Zurich.

Their predecessor was Herwig Kinzler, who left Mercer earlier this year and has been leading the Cologne office of German consultancy RMC since the start of this month. 

Arkitekternes Pensionskasse – Mette Carstad is leaving her position as chair of the supervisory board of Arkitekternes Pensionskasse, the Danish pension fund for architects, after failing to win re-election to the board. She has held the role since 2011.

Meanwhile, Rie Øhlenschlæger and Mads Gudmand-Høyer have been elected as new members of the supervisory board for the fund, which is run by Danish pension provider Sampension.

The election for two seats on the board was between Carstad and Øhlenschlæger, both of whom were nominated by the board, and Gudmand-Høyer and Holger Bisgaard, who were nominated by the fund’s members. Sampension told IPE that there is currently no chair and the date on which this will be decided is not yet known.

Varma – Christoph Vitzthum was elected as chair of the supervisory board of Finnish pensions insurance company Varma at a meeting held on 16 May. He replaces Kari Jordan, who resigned as the firm’s chair on 28 March when he was elected as a member of the board of directors of Nordic bank Nordea.

Vitzthum is president and chief executive of Finnish sustainable food company Fazer. He is also currently chair of the supervisory board of crane company Konecranes and a member of the supervisory board of investment manager Oras Invest. 

APG – Gijsbert de Lange has started as a portfolio manager at APG Asset Management, where he is to work on alternative equity strategies in developed markets. Prior to joining the Dutch investment house, De Lange worked as a senior consultant at Willis Towers Watson for 10 years and as a derivatives trader at ABN Amro for 20 years.

He is also an independent expert on the investment committees of the €77bn metal industry scheme PMT and the €8.4bn scheme Hoogovens, the Dutch pension fund of Tata Steel.

RWC Partners – The $17bn asset manager has hired the investment team of Agilis Investment Management, a specialist multi-strategy firm. Agilis founder Clark Fenton and colleagues Charles Crowson and Praveen Kanakamedala will join RWC to form a new diversified return team.

Fenton is a former co-CIO of Permal Group, a fund of hedge funds. He set up Agilis in 2016. Kanakamedela is responsible for operations and risk management, and previously worked for Permal as global head of risk management, while Crowson previously worked at Mason Capital Management.

Subject to regulatory approval the team and its Protea Agilis multi-strategy fund will transfer to RWC in the third quarter of 2019. In a statement, RWC said the move would allow the Agilis team to focus on its investment strategy while broadening its client base.

Dan Mannix, RWC chief executive, said: “The drive for alternatives continues to grow and Clark and his team have designed an innovative investment approach which offers an uncorrelated solution with the benefits of low cost, frequent liquidity and simplicity. The strategy enhances the breadth of our capabilities and will help meet the increasing demand from investors for strategies that have a low correlation with their core equity and bond portfolios.”

Invesco – Richard Glenn has joined the $975.2bn asset manager as head of UK insurance sales, responsible for developing Invesco’s strategy for this business stream. He joins from Nomura International where he was a managing director and head of the insurance solutions group for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Prior to his 10 years at Nomura, Glenn held investment banking roles at Lehman Brothers and Barclays Capital, working with insurance and other financial institutional clients. 

Folksam Liv – Magnus Vesterlund is leaving Folksam Liv, where he currently works as head of risk. He has been appointed as the new chief economist at the Swedish industry organisation for insurance companies Svensk Försäkring. Vesterlund has worked at Folksam Liv since 2012, and has also previously worked for the Riksbank and the European Commission. He will take up his new role on 19 August. 

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