Ilmarinen, Firefighters’ Pension SAB, SuMi TRUST, Schroders, BDB Pitmans, PAM

Ilmarinen — Finland’s largest pension insurance company Ilmarinen has appointed Karoliina Lindroos as its new head of responsible investment. She replaces Anna Hyrske, who left the company to head up responsible investment for the Bank of Finland last month after working for Ilmarinen for more than 20 years. Lindroos joins the firm from her current role as senior environmental and social adviser at Finnish government development finance company Finnfund. Lindroos is to take up her new role on 31 August.

Firefighters’ Pension SAB – Joanne Livingstone has been named chair of the UK’s Firefighters’ Pension Scheme Advisory Board, which advises the Home Secretary on the desirability of making changes to the scheme. It also advises and assists the 45 Fire and Rescue services in England and their local pension boards. Her appointment as chair commenced on 17 August 2020 and will last for four years. The FPS is a statutory unfunded pension scheme.

Livingstone is currently an adviser to the Judicial Pensions Committee, which advises the Lord Chief Justice in relation to pensions matters. She also serves as the chair of trustees for the Liberty Europe Pension Scheme and is a practitioner member of the Actuarial Council. Previously she worked as a scheme actuary and for Pension Wise, acting as a guider in face-to-face meetings about pensions with members of the public.

SuMi TRUST – The Asian asset manager has appointed Shigeo Mito as director of client services and global business development based in the firm’s London office. In his new role Mito will focus on cultivating and expanding SuMi TRUST’s European client base, in addition to developing new bespoke products for investors.

Mito has more than 20 years of experience in the asset management industry. He started his career at SuMi TRUST in 2000 working in proprietary trading and went on to manage Japanese equity funds from 2008 to 2017. Prior to taking up his current role he worked as an equity investment specialist, collaborating with SuMi TRUST’s client services and business development team in Europe.

Schroders – Nicole Kidd has been named head of private debt for Australia, a new role at the listed asset manager. She will assume the position on 1 September and be based in Schroders’ Sydney office. She joins from RBC where she was most recently managing director and head of corporate banking Australia and institutional client management Asia-Pacific. Nicole will focus on building and developing Schroders’ Private Debt business.

Georg Wunderlin, global head of private assets, Schroders, said: “The arrival of Nicole next month marks another significant step in the ongoing growth of our specialist private assets business. Whether it be through selective acquisitions or hiring the best talent, Schroders is dedicated to securing high-quality additions to drive the growth of this business.”

He also said that “growing Schroders’ private assets business is a key strategy focus for the firm”. The asset manager is “seeing vast opportunities in private debt specifically which makes this a high priority area for our expansion path.”

Schroders private assets and alternatives business manages £45.3bn (€49.8bn) in assets, including private equity, hedge funds, infrastructure finance, insurance-linked securities, commodities, real estate, impact investing and securitised credit.

BDB Pitmans – The law firm has hired Alex Rush for its pensions team. Rush joins from Stephenson Harwood, where he trained and practised for more than 13 years. In addition to his private practice work, he has undertaken two secondments to the board of the Pension Protection Fund and acted as a defined benefit scheme secretary for seven years.

Pacific Asset Management (PAM) – The firm has announced the appointment of multi-asset ESG specialist Will Thompson as portfolio manager with a focus on its multi-asset SRI funds. Thompson will report to PAM CIO William Bartleet.

Thompson joins from HSBC Global Asset Management where he had worked as a senior portfolio manager on the multi-asset team since 2014. At HSBC, he was responsible for running the HSBC Multi-Asset Sustainable, HSBC World Selection and HSBC Global Strategy funds. Prior to this he had been an intern analyst at the Bank of England and also worked as an analyst for Asset Risk Consultants.

PAM’s SRI range includes the SRI Cautious Growth and SRI Balanced Growth portfolios, the latter of which has been available to investors since 2012. Originally an offering from Parallel Investment Management, they were acquired in June 2020 as part of a strategic partnership with Fidelius Group.

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