AXA IM Rosenberg Equities – Kathryn McDonald has been appointed to the newly created position of head of sustainable investing as part of the manager’s commitment to integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations into all of AXA IM Rosenberg Equities’ portfolios by the end of 2017. The equity manager will systematically include quantitative and qualitative ESG insights in portfolio construction and treat the ESG information as complementary to traditional financial information.

McDonald joined AXA IM in 1999 from MSCI Barra Inc. and has held several positions at AXA IM Rosenberg Equities including as senior strategist for emerging markets and Asia ex-Japan, and head of investments for Australia/New Zealand. She had been director of investment strategy for the investment team since 2014.

AP Pension - Jesper Bjerre has been hired by Denmark’s AP Pension as its new chief operating officer and member of the executive board. He is replacing Bo Normann Rasmussen, who was promoted to the role of chief executive in March. Bjerre comes to AP Pension from Danica where he held the position of private director, in charge of the Danske Bank subsidiary’s commercial activities aimed at private customers in both Danica and Danske Bank. Before working at Danica, he was marketing director of PFA Pension for several years.

International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) - Michael McCauley is succeeding Erik Breen as chair of the investor-led network. Breen is head of SRI at Triodos Investment BV, Netherlands and had been chair of the ICGN since 2014. McCauley is senior officer, investment programs and governance at the State Board of Administration of Florida. He is a former chair of the Council of Institutional Investors. Three new ICGN board members were appointed at the network’s recent annual general meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They are: Dana Hollinger, member of the board of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest US asset owner, Paul Schneider, head of corporate governance at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and Ian Burger, head of corporate governance at Newton Investment Management.

PensionsEurope – The trade body for European pension funds has appointed Simone Miotto as senior policy adviser. Miotto previously worked for the European Association of Paritarian Institutions. Matthies Verstegen has also joined the association, as policy adviser with a focus on financial market regulation. He was previously at the Confederation of British Industry.

Schroders – The investment manager has hired Tom Binks as fiduciary manager, taking its overall investment solutions team to 13 people. Binks has eight years of experience as an investment consultant, having joined Willis Towers Watson in 2009. Most recently he was assistant portfolio manager for fully delegated defined benefit pension fund portfolios. Binks will report to Hannah Simons, head of fiduciary management. In a statement she said fiduciary management is a growing area for Schroders. She told IPE Bink’s hire was “a statement of intent” and ””recognition that we expect our fiduciary assets to grow”. Schroders is a new entrant to the fiduciary management market and is still building its track record, she added. 

Lombard Odier – The asset manager has poached Charles St-Arnaud from Nomura, appointing him to the newly created role of senior investment strategist. He will report to Salman Ahmed, chief investment strategist. At Nomura, St-Arnaud was a G10 foreign exchange strategist and economist. Before that he was a senior economist with the Department of Finance Canada and held roles at Morgan Stanley and the Bank of Canada.

AMP Capital – Niamh McBreen has been hired as an investment director in the infrastructure equity asset management team, based in London. Stasha Prnjatovic has been appointed to the newly-created role of investment director, energy within the infrastructure equity team in Sydney. McBreen joined on 1 July from UK Government Investments, an associated body of HM Treasury, where she was executive director working on several portfolio assets including Network Rail, Highways England, NATS and Companies House. Prnjatovic is joining the firm on 17 July, leaving her role of commercial director at New South Wales Treasury, where she oversaw the privatisation of TransGrid, Ausgrid and Endeavour Energy.

Ossiam - The smart beta specialist fund manager and affiliate of Natixis Global Asset Management has hired Mirko Jungmann as product specialist for Austria, Switzerland and Germany. He was previously a senior consultant at Capco Germany, and a senior investment consultant at Mercer Investments in Germany. Jungmann is based in Frankfurt.

Scope – The ratings agency has appointed Said Yakhloufi as head of the mutual funds team. He will be responsible for expanding rating activities for UCITS investment funds. Yakhloufi was previously at Allianz Global Investors, where he had been head of market research and head of global product strategy since 2011.

Just – Graham Jarvis has been appointed director of distribution development for HUB Financial Solutions, the recently merged business that brings together Just Retirement Solutions and The Open Market Annuity Service. Before joining HUB, Jarvis was director of workplace propositions at Staff Care, an employee benefits platform that he developed and eventually sold to SimplyBiz.

Berenberg – The German private bank has further expanded its wealth and asset management team with the appointment of Bernd Meyer as chief strategist and head of multi asset. Meyer joins from Commerzbank, where he was head of cross asset strategy. Before that he was at Deutsche Bank in London as head of the European equity strategy.

Transparency Task Force – The campaign group has launched a new group for progressive asset managers, designed to bring together asset managers that fully back high levels of transparency on costs and charges and demonstrate at least one other progressive characteristic.  IG Group, Sparrows Capital and Lansons are founder members. 

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