Franklin Templeton, BNP Paribas AM, Aon, Allspring, M&G, Pictet, Natixis, TPT, XPS Pensions Group, Pollination, Mercer, Federated Hermes, LCP, AP4, Arkwright
M&G Asset Management – Joseph Pinto has been appointed as M&G’s next chief executive officer. He will have accountability for all investment capabilities including the equity, fixed income, multi asset, private and alternative asset strategies alongside distribution, operations and proposition management across the asset management business.
With 30 years of experience in asset management, financial services, and consulting, Pinto joins from Natixis Investment Managers where he has served as a head of distribution and investment solutions for EMEA, APAC and LATAM, and global chief operating officer. Previously at AXA Investment Managers for 13 years, Pinto held senior positions, including global COO, global head of markets and investment strategy and head of business development for South Europe and the Middle East.
Pinto joins in March 2023 and will become a member of M&G’s executive committee, reporting to group CEO Andrea Rossi. He is succeeding Jonathan Daniels who, in July 2022, announced his intention to retire following 21 years with the business.
The appointment is subject to regulatory approval.
AP4 – The Swedish national pensions buffer fund has announced three new hires – Mikael Anveden as head of portfolio analysis, Lina Berwick in the role of senior legal counsel, and Per Hammarlund as chief investment strategist.
All three started work at the Stockholm-based fund at the beginning of this year.
Anveden previously worked at the bank SEB for more than 15 years, most recently as head of institutional advisory, institutional banking, according to his LinkedIn profile. Hammarlund also comes to AP4 from SEB, having spent the last nine years as the bank’s chief emerging markets strategist. Meanwhile, Berwick was senior legal counsellor at Finanstilsynet, the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority, until she started at AP4 this month.
Pollination – John Morton has rejoined global climate change investment and advisory firm Pollination as a member of the firm’s executive committee and as managing director, global head of advisory. He returns to Pollination after serving for two years as the US Treasury Department and secretary Janet Yellen’s inaugural climate counsellor. In this role, he managed and coordinated the Department of Treasury’s historically ambitious climate change strategy and policies.
Morton’s unique breadth of experience spans the private sector, government, philanthropy, and multi-lateral development banks. Over the course of his three-decade career, Morton’s work has focused on expediting the transition to a low carbon economy, and he has been at the forefront of designing and structuring some of the most innovative platforms and investment vehicles to mobilize private capital flows into fast-growing global markets.
During the Barack Obama administration, Morton served as the president’s White House senior director for energy and climate change, and previously as the chief of staff and COO at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (now the US Development Finance Corporation. Outside of government, Morton was formerly managing director of economic policy at The Pew Charitable Trusts, a private equity investor with the Global Environment Fund, and strategy consultant.
TPT Retirement Solutions – The workplace pension scheme providing services to more than 425,000 members has appointed David Lane as its CEO. He had been serving as interim CEO since June 2022. Prior to this he held the post of COO from 2019.
Lane joined TPT as chief finance officer in June 2013 having held finance, commercial and operational roles at board level in private and listed businesses spanning a range of industry sectors.
During his career, Lane has held several trustee roles, including chair of trustees for the Stanley Tools UK Pension Scheme, and a member-nominated trustee for the Jacuzzi UK Retirement Benefits Scheme.
Following his appointment as CEO, Lane will undertake a strategic review of TPT’s business to shape its next phase of growth.
LCP – Ruth Ward has joined LCP as a principal from Mercer. She brings over 16 years of de-risking experience including buy-ins and buyouts, Pension Protection Fund cases, buy-in restructures, and M&A-driven deals.
She joins LCP as part of a wider expansion of LCP’s longevity de-risking practice which has grown by over 10 people in the past year through internal and external joiners taking the headcount to 60 experienced individuals, which LCP believes is the largest team in the market dedicated to buy-ins/outs.
This is in response to the rapid growth in de-risking activity anticipated in 2023 due to improved buy-out funding levels.
Pictet Alternative Advisors (PAA) – The firm has strengthened its direct private equity capabilities with the hiring of five experienced investment professionals.
The team is to be led by Edmund Buckley, global co-head of private equity and head of direct private equity, based in London, who was recruited in April 2022 from THI Investments to build the direct franchise. Buckley brings over 20 years of experience investing in the European mid-market with a strong track record and depth of experience across a broad range of sectors and geographies.
Nikolaus Hubmann has joined PAA as head of DACH and is responsible for research, origination, due diligence and oversight of investment opportunities within the region. Prior to joining Pictet, he was a principal at Sun Capital Partners. Hubmann is a specialist in the DACH middle-market, with 12 years’ experience originating and executing both buy-side and sell-side transactions in Germany and the wider DACH region, with a focus on the Industrials and B2B services sectors.
Sean Howard has been hired as an investment manager and will support Buckley and the regional heads in the origination and oversight of investment opportunities and portfolio companies. He was previously in Ares Management’s private equity group, where he focused on UK buyout investments across B2B services, healthcare and technology sectors.
Jan Dreesen has joined as an investment associate. Prior to joining Pictet, Dreesen was an investment professional at Aurelius Group, where he focused on origination, due diligence, deal execution and strategic support to portfolio companies in the European middle-market.
Hugo Hickson has been hired as a value creation principal. He has a focus on strategy, digitalisation, operational improvements, sales and pricing optimisation and ESG. He brings over 10 years’ experience in helping European businesses improve and grow, primarily built up over his tenure at McKinsey & Company.
The experienced team will continue to grow through 2023, and will draw on Pictet’s global infrastructure and investment resources including ESG, tech, legal and compliance. Ultimately, the team will expand its activities once the UK entity has obtained its regulatory authorisation.
Aon – William Engelhardt has been appointed as an associate partner in Aon’s corporate consulting and member options teams.
Engelhardt joins after 19 years at WTW, where he provided strategic counsel on UK pension arrangements to a portfolio of trustee and corporate clients, gaining wide experience of funding and investment strategy, de-risking journey planning, and member options. He has advised a number of pension scheme trustee boards and companies and is a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.
Engelhardt has joined Aon’s corporate consulting team based in St Albans, where he will divide his time between advising companies on pension issues and leading projects for the member options team.
Mercer – The consultancy has appointed Tom Austin as a director in its growing UK covenant advisory team headed by partner Darren Masters. The new hire is in addition to Kriti Chandnani, Joe Hornsby, Adam D’Souza, Brandy Mukasa and Michael Fenton who all joined in the last year, taking the total size of the team to 15 covering the whole of the UK.
Austin, a qualified accountant with almost two decades of professional services experience, started his career at KPMG, more latterly working at Interpath Advisory. He brings to Mercer a depth of experience of working with trustees and corporates across a range of situations including valuations, advising on the impact of restructuring, transactions, and performance monitoring.
Austin’s clients have ranged in size from small owner managed businesses where scheme assets are less than £10m, to multi-national listed groups with multi-employer schemes that have assets of more than £10bn.
Arkwright – Mats Langensjö has joined management consultancy Arkwright as a partner. The firm said the Swedish pensions expert would will work with fund managers, insurers, platforms, and pension companies to achieve their strategic goals and business objectives.
Langensjö has already been working with Arkwright for several years, even before he formed the firm Secoria in 2019 as an Arkwright partner company.
Having been inquiry chair and adviser to the Swedish Ministry of Finance during his career so far, Arkwright said Langensjö had been key part of its team working with the Swedish Pensions Agency (Pensionsmyndigheten) and on the establishment of the Swedish Fund Selection Agency (Fondtorgsnämnden) – the new procurement agency for funds to be offered on the revamped Premium Pension System platform.
Langensjö said in a statement from the consultancy: “I’m really excited about joining Arkwright at such important and formative times.”Martin Tarmet, Arkwright managing director, said Langensjö would be invaluable as the firm continued to grow and develop its business.
XPS Pensions Group – Dave Barratt has been hired as a senior consultant in the firm’s growing risk settlement team as client demand continues to rise.
Barratt joins from Aon and has more than 15 years of specialist experience, having advised on buy-in and buyout projects for schemes of all sizes. In his new role, Barratt will continue to focus on leading on buy-in and buyout transactions as well as helping clients with strategic end-game journey planning.
Allspring Global Investments – The asset manager has announced the opening of its new office in Hong Kong and the appointment of Linda Luk as head of sales for North Asia.
Luk joins Allspring with almost 30 years of experience working in the investment industry, leading distribution, and marketing activities across the region. She will be responsible for executing Allspring’s sales strategy and servicing clients in Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan.
Before joining Allspring, she served as a managing director and chief distribution officer at Income Partners Asset Management. Before that, Luk was at Vanguard Investments Hong Kong, where she held several roles, most recently serving as a managing director and head of Hong Kong distribution.
Franklin Templeton – Marie Keil-Mouy has been appointed as head of institutional sales Germany on 1 January 2023. Reporting to Stefan Bauer, head of distribution for Germany, Switzerland and Austria, Keil-Mouy is based in Frankfurt.
In her new position she will lead the business development efforts related to Franklin Templeton’s institutional business in Germany, focusing on pension funds, insurers and consultants.
Keil-Mouy will lead a senior team of Frankfurt-based institutional sales professionals and work in close coordination with Franklin Templeton’s regional distribution teams and alternative sales specialists to engage clients on the firm’s full range of asset management capabilities.
Prior to joining Franklin Templeton, Keil-Mouy worked as deputy head institutional sales Germany and Austria at Robeco, where she led the institutional client and consultant coverage. Prior to that, she worked as an executive director at DekaBank where she focused on asset management strategies for pension funds and insurances.
Natixis Investment Managers – Fabrice Chemouny has been appointed head of international distribution, overseeing client and development activities for EMEA, APAC and LATAM. He was previously head of Asia Pacific at Natixis IM and has more than 20 years of experience in asset management.
Christophe Lanne, chief administration officer for asset and wealth management, will oversee post-sales support activities for international distribution, as well as Natixis IM Solutions activities, in addition to his existing responsibilities for global operations and technology, human resources and corporate social responsibility strategy.
Fabrice Chemouny and Christophe Lanne will both report to Tim Ryan, head of asset and wealth management within Groupe BPCE’s Global Financial Services and will continue to serve on the management committee of asset and wealth management.
Federated Hermes – EOS at Federated Hermes has announced the hire of Ross Teverson to lead its engagement team for Asia and global emerging markets.
Based in London, Teverson will be responsible for leading the development and delivery of EOS’s Engagement Plan for corporate and public policy, and market best practices across Asia and global emerging markets. Over the course of 2022, EOS engaged with 270 companies across these regions.
Teverson has deep experience in asset management and stewardship, with more than 20 years’ investing in and engaging with companies across the Asia and emerging market regions. He was previously head of strategy for global emerging market equities at Jupiter Asset Management where he held the additional roles of member of the stewardship committee and leadership group. Prior to this, he held various investment-focused positions at Standard Life Investments.
Federated Hermes now has over 45 professionals working across its stewardship and responsibility teams, making it one of the largest stewardship resources in the world.
BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM) – The firm continues to strengthen its ETF distribution capabilities with the appointment of John Altas in the newly-created role of ETF specialist for the Nordic region.
Based in Stockholm, he joined on 16 January and reports functionally to Claus Hecher, regional ETF head of sales for Northern Europe, and locally to Morten Bentsen, head of distribution for BNPP AM in the Nordic region.
Altas joins from BlackRock and has 10 years’ asset management industry experience, as a relationship manager and sales support manager. At BNPP AM he will focus on developing the company’s ETF client base in the Nordic region and providing clients with specialist expertise in sustainable ETFs and index investment solutions.
No comments yet