Unilever APF, British Airways Pension Trustees, APG, FRC, Pensioenfonds Sabic, MFS Investment Management, FundRock, AMF, Pantheon, Stone Harbor Investment Partners, NN Investment Partners, Aberdeen Standard Investments, Pensions Ombudsman, Dynamic Credit Group, Amundi

Unilever APF – Frans Prins has been named independent chairman of Unilever’s Dutch general pension fund (APF), which governs the company’s Dutch pension funds Progress and Forward. He is to succeed Ruud Hommes.

Currently, Prins is chair of the supervisory board of the staff pension fund of asset manager APG, chair of the Norit Pensioenfonds – currently in liquidation – and adviser to the monitoring committee of the Netherlands’ pension fund code.

Prins has held executive positions at several large pension funds, including PWRI, PMT and PGGM, as well as the Association of Company Pension Funds, now part of the Pensions Federation. The appointment of Prins is subject to regulatory approval.

British Airways Pension Trustees – The trustee company for British Airways’ £25.4bn pension arrangements has appointed Robert Talbut as an independent adviser. Talbut was chief investment officer at Royal London Asset Management for 10 years until 2014, since when he has taken up a number of trustee and non-executive roles, including chairman of EFG Asset Management.

Talbut was previously CIO at insurance company Royal Sun Alliance, and has chaired committees for the Association of British Insurers and the Investment Association. He is also a member of institutional investor think tank the 300 Club.

APG – The Netherlands’ largest pension manager has appointed Jaap van Manen as chairman of its supervisory board (RvT) for a four-year term as of 1 January. He succeeds Bart Le Blanc , who completed his term in July.

Van Manen is a partner at Strategic Management Center, a consultancy that provides advice to senior company executives. He also chairs the monitoring committee of the Dutch Corporate Governance Code as well as the Good Governance Committee of the Association of Universities. Among other positions, Van Manen is also emeritus professor for corporate governance at Groningen University. Until 1 October, he was vice-chair of the RvT of Dutch regulator De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB).

APG’s RvT comprises Pieter Jongstra (vice chair), Roger van Boxtel, Maes van Lanschot, Edit Snoeij, Dick van Well and Claudia Zuiderwijk.

Financial Reporting Council – Carlota Garcia Manus, senior investment stewardship analyst at the Church Commissioners for England, has been appointed one of the 15 members of the beleaguered UK accounting watchdog’s new Future of Corporate Reporting Advisory Group.

Roland Bosch, corporate engagement chief at Hermes Investment Management, and Karin Ri, responsible investment director at Asset Management One International, are among the other investor representatives on the group. 

Pensioenfonds Sabic – Pascal Wolters is the new independent chair of the €2.6bn Dutch pension fund Sabic. Currently, he is trustee at the €206bn healthcare scheme PFZW and the €4bn public transport scheme SPOV.

Between 1998 and 2014 he held various positions in asset management, pensions and board support at the civil service scheme ABP and its asset manager APG. The pension fund said that it had opted for an independent chair, as the job was difficult to combine with a regular position at the company.

MFS Investment Management – Ted Maloney will be MFS’ new chief investment officer from 1 January 2019, succeeding Michael Roberge, who will focus on his role as CEO.

Maloney has worked at MFS since 2005 when he joined as an equity research analyst. He became director of US equity research in 2011 and subsequently worked as a fund manager.

“Ted brings extensive experience to the role, having held multiple investment research positions at the firm during his tenure. He has worked across the equity, fixed income and quantitative groups to build strong, collaborative relationships that will serve him well as CIO,” said Roberge.

FundRock/AMF – Xavier Parain is to leave the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the French financial markets regulator, to join the Luxembourg-based third party fund management services company as CEO with effect from 7 January.

Parain worked for AMF for seven years, and was most recently its deputy secretary general in charge of the asset management directorate. Before joining AMF Parain worked in the banking and asset management sectors. He served as the CEO of FundLogic, Morgan Stanley’s funds and hedge funds distribution platform, and president of Merrill Lynch Invest, Merrill Lynch’s asset management firm specialising in structured funds.

Laurent Bouyoux, president and founding partner at FundRock’s shareholder, BlackFin Capital Partners, said Parain’s experience at European regulatory bodies would directly benefit FundRock’s clients, “helping them to navigate through a complex and constantly evolving regulatory context”. 

Pantheon – The private markets specialist has appointed Robin Bailey as chief operating officer. He joined Pantheon in 2010 and has been chief financial officer since 2015. In his new role he will have responsibility for the company’s finance, operations, tax and technology teams.

Bailey’s appointment is one of a number of internal promotions, including Imogen Richards, global head of investment structuring and strategy, and Kevin Dunwoodie, on the US-based secondaries investment team, who have been made partners.

Stone Harbor Investment Partners – Credit specialist manager Stone Harbor has promoted Jim Craige as co-CIO alongside Peter Wilby. He will continue as the company’s head of emerging markets. The pair have worked together as fund managers since 1992, Stone Harbor said.

In addition, Marianne Rossi and William Perry have been appointed co-heads of Stone Harbor’s global high yield team, and co-managers have been added to the firm’s US and European high yield strategies, as well as its bank loans strategy.

NN IP – The €197bn Dutch asset manager NN Investment Partners has appointed Bronka Rzepkowski as head of investment strategy for its nine-strong multi-asset team of macroeconomists, strategists and data scientists, based in the Hague. She will report to Ewout van Schaick, head of multi-asset.

Rzepkowski started her career as an economist at the Banque de France and subsequently worked as a senior economist at the European Central Bank, and as lead global strategist at London-based Oxford Economics. Most recently, she was a member of Robeco’s global macro fixed income team. Van Schaick said the team planned to focus on acquiring new data sources and increasing research into behavioural signs and artificial intelligence.

Aberdeen Standard – Merijn Vegter has been appointed as director of business development at Aberdeen Standard Investments in Amsterdam. He joins from Robeco, where he worked for 12 years in a number of roles, including head of institutional account management and most recently institutional sales and relationship manager. Vegter started his career at ING Investment Management (now NN IP) in 2002.

UK Pensions Ombudsman – Anthony Arter has been reappointed as head of the UK’s Pensions Ombudsman for a further two years, until July 2021. He has held the post since May 2015 and is a former head of pensions at law firm Eversheds.

The Ombudsman is appointed by the Department for Work and Pensions and is responsible for investigating disputes and complaints related to personal and occupational pension schemes as well as complaints and issues relating to the Pension Protection Fund.

Dynamic Credit Group – Giles Andrew is to join Dynamic Credit Group (DCG) as chair of its supervisory board. DCG comprises the €10.5bn fixed income asset manager and direct lending firm Dynamic Credit and investor services platform LoanClear, and has offices in Amsterdam, New York and Jakarta. Andrew is co-founder of Zopa, a peer-to-peer lending platform.

Amundi – Clarisse Djabbari has been appointed head of strategy and development for Amundi’s exchange-traded fund (ETF), indexing and smart beta business. She was previously deputy CEO of Lyxor Asset Management’s ETF business, having joined the asset manager in 2010 from Société Générale’s investment bank. At Amundi Djabbari will report to Fannie Wurtz, managing director of Amundi’s ETF, indexing and smart beta.

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