People moves: B&CE appoints investment MD; Hymans creates new LGPS role [updated]

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B&CE, Hymans Robertson, Union Investment, Green Finance Institute, Alderwood Capital, FRR, Allspring Global Investments, BlueBay Asset Management, V-Square Quantitative Management, Janus Henderson Group

B&CE – The provider of £15bn (€17.6bn) master trust The People’s Pension has hired Jon Cunliffe, CIO of wealth manager Charles Stanley, as investment managing director.

He will be responsible for the overall performance of the investment business unit, working alongside the CIO, who will retain responsibility for client investment strategy.

Cunliffe has also worked at Tesco Pension Investment (head of fixed income), Aberdeen Asset Management, and Bank of England.

Hymans Robertson – The consultancy has created a new role within its local government pension scheme (LGPS) team, citing a backdrop of structural and regulatory change and enhanced scrutiny from Scheme stakeholders.

Susan Black joins from NatWest Group to take on the role: head of GAP (governance, administration and projects). Prior to her career in financial services, Black was a solicitor in private practice specialising in high value dispute resolution.

Union Investment – Harald Rieger will succeed André Haagmann as head of institutional clients at the German asset manager. Haagmann will move to a position on the board of managing directors of Union Asset Management Holding AG in March next year.

Rieger’s most recent position was as member of the board of managing directors of DWS International GmbH, with responsibility for sales, marketing and European branch offices. He is also deputy chairman of the supervisory board of Deutscher Pensionsfonds AG and a member of the supervisory board of Deutsche Treuinvest Stiftung.

Green Finance Institute – Emma Howard Boyd has been named the Institute’s interim chair, an appointment following the death of Roger Gifford, the Institute’s founding chair, in May.

Boyd has worked in financial services for over 25 years, in corporate finance and fund management, and is chair of the Environment Agency in England. Proceedings to appoint a permanent chair are set to begin in September, with an official announcement expected in early 2022.

The Green Finance Institute this week also announced the formation of an advisory board comprising eight environmental and sustainability leaders, including Sarah Breeden, executive director, financial stability, strategy and risk, Bank of England, and Fiona Reynolds, CEO of the Principles for Responsible Investment.

Alderwood Capital – The London-based fund manager has appointed Olive Darragh and Neil Cochrane as independent chairs.

Cochrane is currently chairman of A$145bn (€90bn) Australian pension fund Aware Super. Previous roles include deputy CEO and global head of business development at Colonial First State Global Asset Management and CEO of the Retail Employees Superannuation Trust, another Australian pension fund.

Darragh is currently the CEO of Darragh Inc., a consulting firm, and CEO and Founder of Zolio, a platform developed to attract and train new entrants in the investment industry. Since 2019 she has served as an independent board member for Columbia Threadneedle Funds.

Fonds de réserve pour les retraites (FRR) – Philippe Tibi has been appointed to the public investor’s supervisory board by government decree. Tibi is chairman of the executive committee of the government’s ‘Financing the Fourth Industrial Revolution’ initiative, which aims to boost investment in French technology companies.

At FRR the board elected Tibi as its vice-chair and chair of the audit and accounts committee. FRR is one of the French institutional investors participating in the Tibi financing initiative.

Allspring Global Investments – Joseph Sullivan will become CEO, in addition to his previously announced role as executive chairman, of Allspring Global Investments, the former Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM). Private equity firms GTCR LLC and Reverence Capital Partners, who are acquiring WFAM, announced the rebranding this week.

Sullivan is the former chairman and CEO of Legg Mason until its acquisition by Franklin Templeton in 2020. He will succeed Nico Marais, WFAM’s current CEO, who will retire upon closing of the acquisition and continue to serve Allspring as a senior advisor.

The acquisition of WFAM is expected to close in the second half of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions.

BlueBay Asset Management – The specialist fixed income manager has expanded its environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment team with the addition of two new roles. Emma Whiteacre has been appointed as a senior ESG analyst within its ESG team, joining from Beazley Group, where she was country risk analyst and chair of its responsible business committee.

Elena Koycheva has been appointed to the newly created role of ESG institutional portfolio manager, a role in which she will work with investment teams to enhance the BlueBay’s proposition by showcasing evidence of robust ESG integration and engagement across its strategies. Koycheva has been with BlueBay for almost five years and was most recently in the role of senior RFP writer within the global business development team.

V-Square Quantitative Management – Erik Norland, formerly at Northern Trust Asset Management, has joined the quant firm as head of distribution. Based in Stockholm, he will report to Mamadou-Abou Sarr, co-founder and president, and will join the global leadership team.

Norland was head of the Nordic region at Northern Trust, with a particular focus on distribution of sophisticated ESG strategies.

Janus Henderson Group – James Lowry has been appointed to the newly-created role of global chief operating officer at Janus Henderson Group. He has more than 25 years of relevant global experience and joins from State Street, where he currently holds the position of chief operating officer of State Street Alpha, State Street’s front-to-back investment management platform division.

Lowry will join Janus Henderson on 1 October 2021, will be based in London and will report to CEO Dick Weil. As part of his new role, Lowry will oversee operations, technology, data governance and architecture, change management and strategic vendor oversight. He will further strengthen the firm’s leadership team and will also join its executive committee.