LPP, LGIM, PGGM, M&G, AP3, Aberdeen Standard Investments, ERIC, American Century Investments, BNP Paribas, Mediolanum, Värde Partners

Local Pensions Partnership – The collaboration between three UK local authority pension funds has named a trio of new non-executive directors. Sarah Laessig and Jill Mackenzie have been appointed to the LPP board, while Martin Tully has been appointed to the board of the company’s investment subsidiary.

Laessig is a former Citigroup banking executive and is currently a commissioner on the Civil Service Commission and the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission, as well as holding non-executive positions at two technology firms.

Mackenzie held senior human resources roles at Lloyds Bank and Virgin Media, and now is a trustee of several pension schemes including NEST, the Judicial Pension Board, the Legal Services Commission Pension Scheme, and the Welsh Assembly Members’ Pension Scheme. Tully is an independent consultant, having worked for more than 20 years at companies including Ashmore, Rothschild, Citigroup and HSBC.

Legal & General Investment Management – LGIM has hired Sonja Laud as deputy CIO, a newly created role. The firm is also set to bring in William Riley as head of solutions. The pair will join in January.

Laud joins from Fidelity International where she was head of equity, and she has also worked at Barings, Schroders and DWS in fund management and asset allocation roles. Riley was previously head of client solutions portfolio management at BlackRock, working across multiple strategies and asset classes.

PGGM – Henk Broeders has started as a member of the supervisory board of the €215bn asset manager and pensions provider PGGM, focusing on audit, risk and compliance. Since the end of the 1990s, Broeders has worked at Unilever and McKinsey & Company.

Broeders is chairman of the Stichting Hanarth Fonds, a foundation for cancer research, a trustee at a foundation to support the Amsterdam Alzheimers Centre as well as a member of the supervisory board of the Alexander Monro breast cancer hospital in the Netherlands.

M&G Investments – The UK-based investment house made a trio of changes within its global distribution team. Micaela Forelli has been appointed head of European distribution, based in Luxembourg. She has worked at M&G since 2001 – with a three-year spell at Fidelity until 2010, according to her LinkedIn page – and is currently director of global banks, a role she will continue alongside her new responsibilities.

Earlier this year M&G shifted nearly €40bn of assets to Luxembourg to ensure ease of access for existing European clients post-Brexit.

Manuele de Gennaro has replaced Forelli as managing director and chair of the board of M&G Switzerland. He joined M&G’s team in Zurich in 2015 having previously worked at Aberdeen Asset Management and Credit Suisse. Kelly Hebert has been appointed to the newly created role of head of M&G Belux (Belgium and Luxembourg). Hebert was previously director of sales for the Benelux region, having joined M&G in 2014.

AP3 – Elena Westerdahl has moved to the Swedish state pension buffer fund to take on the role of senior quantitative analyst. She was previously chief analyst at Nordea, where she worked since 2005. She has also worked as a risk management consultant at Oliver Wyman and valuation expert at KPMG Corporate Finance. 

Aberdeen Standard Investments – The €630bn asset manager has hired Aymeric Forest as global head of multi-asset investing. He will succeed Guy Stern who is to retire next year after a handover period.

Forest will join in February. He was previously head of multi-asset investments for Europe at Schroders. In his new role at Aberdeen Standard he will take responsibility for the £140bn (€161bn) multi-asset business.

ERIC – The Electronic Research Interchange, an investment research firm, has named Daren Riley as its chief executive. He has been an adviser to the company since last year and in his new role will be responsible for developing ERIC’s strategy “to address the realities of the investment research market under MiFID II”, it said in a statement.

Over the course of his 30-year career, Riley has held senior equity investing and sales management roles at Nomura, CLSA and Macquarie Group. He also founded and managed an investment management business specialising in Asian equities and global macro strategies. 

American Century Investments – The $162bn (€142bn) investment house has appointed Benjamin Day to lead the firm’s UK office. He was previously head of global sales at Stratton Street Capital for four years, and has also worked as head of sales and marketing at Esemplia Emerging Markets, part of Legg Mason.

BNP Paribas Capital Partners – The alternative investments arm of BNP Paribas Asset Management has brought in Charlotte Laurent as head of sales, responsible for developing the group’s offerings for European institutional investors. She was previously senior vice president in charge of business development at Bedrock Asset Management, an investment house serving family offices. She has also worked at Commerzbank and Nomura. 

Mediolanum Asset Management – The Irish asset manager has hired David Holohan as senior equity investment strategist. His appointment follows those of Astrid Schilo, who joined as a multi-asset strategist, and Inma Condé, who is the firm’s new head of manager research.

Holohan joins from wealth manager Merrion Capital Group where he was CIO and fund manager. He was previously a partner and investment director at Cedar Capital Advisors.

Värde Partners – Mona Girotra has joined the $14bn specialist alternatives manager as global head of consultant relations. She is based in New York and joins from hedge fund manager Highbridge Capital, where she was managing director of business development and investor relations. She has also held senior roles at JPMorgan Asset Management and Neuberger Berman.

Topics