People moves: APG hires Lighaam from Wilshire for fiduciary role

APG, Wilshire, Kirstein, Achmea Pensioenfonds, Achmea IM, Aviva Investors, Actiam, CEM Benchmarking, Lombard Odier IM, MBW International, Pacific Asset Management, Natixis Global Asset Management

APG – Patrick Lighaam has been appointed head of the economy and strategy team at Dutch asset manager APG. The team is part of the recently-restructured fiduciary department, headed by Hans Rademaker since February. Until recently, Lighaam was an investment consultant at Wilshire Associates in California, where his clients included the large state pension fund CalPERS. Prior to this, he has also worked in the Netherlands for Morgan Stanley, Barclays and Blue Sky Group.

Spektrum/Kirstein – Spektrum, a Danish advice and portfolio management company, has hired Søren Dal Thomsen as its CEO, effective from 1 November. Dal Thomsen is the former chief executive of Denmark’s third-largest pension fund AP Pension. He left the fund unexpectedly at the end of last year.

Spektrum was launched last month by consultancy group Kirstein, which provides advice to asset managers. It already advises on or manages portfolios worth a total of €4.4bn. Founder Jesper Kirstein, who also set up Spektrum, has targeted €7bn of assets under advice and management within five years.

Dal Thomsen said: “I have always been interested in investing, and the position as CEO of Spektrum fulfils my desire to offer investors world-class advice and investment management. Spektrum has growth on the agenda, a great team and the same approach to investments [as] me.”

Achmea Pensioenfonds – Sybrand Nauta has left as director of the €7bn pension fund of Achmea Group as of 1 October in order to continue his career outside Achmea. In 1998, Nauta started his career as account director at insurer Centraal Beheer, part of Achmea Group. He has been manager of Achmea’s pensions bureau from 2002 until 2005, when he became director of the pension fund.  

Elsewhere within the Achmea group, Bianca Tetteroo has been appointed as a member of the supervisory board (RvC) of Achmea Investment Management as of 1 October, succeeding Huub Arendse who has stepped down. Tetteroo is a member of Achmea’s executive board.

Aviva Investors – Mike Craston is the new chairman of Aviva Investors, the asset management arm of UK insurer Aviva. He has joined the board as a non-executive director already, and will become chairman on 17 November. He succeeds John Misselbrook, who has been chairman since the start of 2014 and is set to retire. Craston was head of the client solutions function at Aviva Investors between January 2015 and June 2016. Before joining the company, Craston held a number of senior roles at Legal & General Investment Management including leading its global distribution operations and serving as CEO for the group’s American and Asian businesses.

Actiam – John Shen, chief risk officer at asset manager Actiam, has left the company. He will continue his career in Hong Kong, where he worked earlier, “for personal reasons”. Shen started at Actiam in May 2016. His board tasks have been taken over temporarily by Hans van Houwelingen, while his management responsibilities are temporarily being carried out by Bert Harmen.

CEM Benchmarking – The pension scheme benchmarking specialist has hired Tej Dosanjh, who joins as a director in its Europe and Middle East team. The appointment is “as a direct response to increasing client demand for the company’s benchmark services”, the company said. Dosanjh was previously at Willis Towers Watson where he led the investment management change team.

T Rowe Price – The US-based asset manager has appointed Paul Gallagher to its institutional business development team for the UK and Ireland. He joins from State Street Global Markets where he worked with consultants, local authorities, asset managers, insurance companies and corporates.

Lombard Odier Investment Managers – The Swiss asset manager has appointed Eric Roeleven as head of institutional sales, based in the group’s Zurich office. He has rejoined the company, having previously been a client relationship manager between 1998 and 2005. Since leaving he has worked at Pictet Asset Management, where he was responsible for institutional clients in the German-speaking part of Switzerland.

MBW International – MBW, a joint venture between UK consultancy Barnett Waddingham and US firm Milliman, has hired Isabel Coles as a senior international client consultant. She joins the team providing global employee benefits advice for MBW’s UK multi-national clients. She was previously a consultant at Mercer, and was a partner at Barnett Waddingham earlier in her career.

Pacific Asset Management – The asset manager has hired Paul McLernon as its chief operating officer. He joins from Pensato Capital, an equity long/short specialist manager, where he was also COO. McLernon also spent 13 years at Goldman Sachs in its prime brokerage and equity finance trading business. Pacific has also hired Ben Sears from Shore Capital as head of UK adviser strategy. The company is to launch an emerging markets long-only fund next month.

Natixis Global Asset Management – The multi-boutique asset manager has hired Carlos Vilares as head of insurance for the UK and Ireland. He joins from PIMCO where he was a vice president within its financial institutions group. He has also worked at MAN Investments and Norton Rose.