M&G Prudential, State Street, Mercer, Barnett Waddingham, Avida, BNY Mellon IM, eVestment, Aviva Investors, HSBC GAM, PGIM Real Estate

M&G Prudential – Mike Evans has been appointed chair of M&G Prudential ahead of its planned demerger from UK insurance group Prudential. Evans currently chairs the board of Just Eat, a mobile app company, and previously served as chairman of the boards of UK fund broker Hargreaves Lansdown and property company Zoopla.

Prudential said further board appointments would be announced “in due course”. It has not yet set a date for the demerger as it is subject to the completion of other changes within the Prudential group.

Evans said: “This is an exciting time to be joining M&G Prudential, which is a strong business with lots of opportunities for growth in the UK and international savings and investment markets. I look forward to working with John and his team as we become an independent business.” 

M&G Prudential runs €395.4bn worldwide, according to IPE’s latest Top 400 Asset Managers guide.

PGIM – PGIM Real Estate, part of the US financial services giant Prudential Financial, plans to expand its defined contribution (DC) offering into Europe and Asia and has promoted David Skinner to lead its global operations. Skinner has led the US DC operation for PGIM Real Estate for seven years and manages two daily-priced property portfolios. The firm has also hired Sara Shean as an executive director – she was previously head of institutional DC at Cohen & Steers.

State Street – The US financial services giant has poached Angela Summonte from BNP Paribas Securities Services to lead its institutional business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).

As head of asset owner and official institutions sector solutions, Summonte will be responsible for the group’s institutional sales strategy and business and product development. Summonte worked at BNP Paribas for 14 years in various sales roles across banking, global custody, and fund administration.

Aviva Investors – The UK-based asset management arm of insurance firm Aviva is setting up a US equities team, to be led by new recruit Susan Schmidt. She joins from Westwood Holdings Group, an investment management company based in Texas, where she was a senior portfolio manager focused on small and mid-cap companies.

The creation of a US equities team follows the appointment of eight equities staff from Aberdeen Standard Investments in July. Aviva Investors also hired David Cumming as equities CIO in January.

Cumming said the firm would add more staff to Schmidt’s team, based in Chicago, in the coming months. Tom Meyers, the company’s head of client solutions for the Americas, added: “The US equities team will compliment our growing global equities platform and our expanding North American fixed income capabilities, allowing us to better serve clients regionally and around the globe.”

Mercer Germany – Rita Pfahls joined the German arm of consultant Mercer on 1 October to support institutional clients on the construction and implementation of investment strategies. She was previously at German asset manager Universal Investment, where she oversaw corporate and pension fund clients. Prior to joining Universal in 2013, Pfahls worked at Allianz Global Investors and Deka Bank.

Barnett Waddingham – The UK actuarial, administration and consultancy services provider has hired Barry McKay to its public sector consulting team. He joins from rival consultancy group Hymans Robertson where he worked for 22 years and led the firm’s actuarial practice for local government pension schemes (LGPS).

In his new role, based in Glasgow, McKay will provide advice and risk management solutions to the company’s LGPS clients as well as developing Barnett Waddingham’s strategy for this client group. Barnett Waddingham is one of the leading service providers to the 100 LGPS funds across the UK.

Avida International – Pascal Hogenboom, the former CEO of Aon Hewitt in the Netherlands, has joined investment advisory firm Avida International as an associate partner. He left Aon on 1 April after five years as chief executive. Hogenboom will also work with Strategia Worldwide, a London-based consultancy that provides a variety of risk management services, including financial, political and security.

Paul Boerboom, founding partner of Avida International, said Hogenboom would help the company “improve our services for clients in an age where the industry is subject to rapid changes, such as the need for new value propositions, fee pressures, digitalisation, and sustainable investing”.

Hogenboom, who served in the Dutch military for eight years, said the two roles meant he could use this experience along with his time in financial services “to help clients with the challenges they face”.

IIRC – Dominic Barton has been appointed chair of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), a global body pushing reform in company reporting. Barton is senior partner and former global managing partner at McKinsey & Company, and joins IIRC as it enters a new strategic phase. Barton takes over from Mervyn King, former governor of the Bank of England, although King will stay on as chair emeritus.

BNY Mellon Investment Management – Sarah Jarrett has been promoted to head of institutional liquidity distribution for Europe, responsible for the company’s cash and liquidity management products. She has worked for BNY Mellon IM for 11 years, and was “instrumental in establishing and developing the institutional liquidity distribution business”, the company said in a statement.

In addition, the asset manager has appointed Luke Newman as institutional liquidity sales manager for Europe. He was previously director of EMEA trading at Institutional Cash Distributors.

eVestment – The institutional data and analytics firm has appointed Ashish Aryal as head of strategy for EMEA, tasked with growing eVestment’s presence across the region. He was previously at BlackRock, where he worked for seven years as vice president of global market intelligence and corporate strategy. He has also held positions with investment banks Jefferies International and Société Générale.

HSBC Global Asset Management – HSBC GAM has hired two new staff to its London-based fixed income team. Oliver Boulind joins from Aberdeen Asset Management where he developed an asset allocation process for global bond portfolios, and will perform a similar role at HSBC GAM. He has previously worked for AllianceBernstein, Invesco and JPMorgan.

Richard Balfour joins from Barings, where he was an investment manager on the firm’s multi-sector fixed income team. In his new role he will run global and UK bond portfolios. He has previously run money at Credit Suisse Asset Management.

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