IPD, Finance Denmark, SPV, L&G, Achmea, Eurizon, Northern Trust Asset Management, Aviva Investors, PensioenFederatie, CFA Institute, PMI, Alcentra, Dufas, EY, M&G, Groupama, Adams Street Partners, Vontobel, Insight

National Government Employee Pensions Board (SPV) – Maria Humla has been appointed by the Swedish government as the new director general and head of the country’s National Government Employee Pensions Board. She took up the role on 6 July. Previously, Humla was deputy director general of the government agency, having held various executive positions at the SPV from 2009 onwards. 

Before joining the agency – which carries out the administration of the government employee pension for around 800,000 employees and pensioners and 400 employers – Humla worked at the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Forsakringskassan) and one of its predecessor organisations, the Swedish National Insurance Administration (Riksförsäkringsverket).

Insurance & Pension Denmark/Finance Denmark – Jesper Rangvid, professor at Copenhagen Business School, has been appointed as the chair of a new panel of independent experts tasked with establishing assumptions for determining pension forecasts in Denmark. 

The commission was set up by industry associations Insurance & Pension Denmark and banking body Finance Denmark. Since 2005, assumptions for pension calculations have been laid down by the two associations with reference to the Danish financial regulator, Finanstilsynet. The new commission will determine the pension calculation assumptions from 2019. 

Torben Andersen , professor at Aarhus University and chairman of the board of ATP, and Peter Engberg Jensen, chairman of the board of state-owned company Finansiel Stabilitet and former chief executive of Nykredit, have been named as the other members of the panel. 

Legal & General Group – The company has created a new direct investment and real assets business within its retirement institutional arm. Eleanor Bucks will lead the new business as managing director. 

Laura Mason, CEO of Legal & General Retirement Institutional, said: “It’s clear to me that we can make a real difference in the way we source our direct investments and real assets, by working closely with Legal & General Investment Management and Legal & General Capital more, to increase investment opportunities along with the effective restructuring and re-profiling of our increasingly diverse range of assets.”

Achmea – Roelof Konterman, vice-chairman of the executive board of Dutch pension insurer Achmea, has announced that he will leave at the end of this year after 36 years of service, of which more than five years was as a member of the executive board. He said he would step down to increase his focus on other supervisory positions. Achmea said the timing of his departure followed constructive talks with Achmea’s supervisory board as well as with the chief executive.

Meanwhile, Erik van Houwelingen has stepped down as chairman of the supervisory board (RvC) of Achmea’s asset management subsidiary, Achmea IM, as of 1 July. It follows his appointment as European sales manager at the €476bn global asset manager Dimensional Fund Advisors. Van Houwelingen had chaired the RvC since January 2016.

In the wake of his move, he will also step down as employer representative on the board of civil service scheme ABP. Van Houwelingen has previously been chairman of ABP’s investment committee and is a former chief executive of Aegon Asset Management.

Eurizon – Eurizon has made hires to expand its presence in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Jörg Ahlheid joined on 2 July as senior sales manager for Germany and Austria, based in Frankfurt. He was previously country manager for Germany and Austria at French fund manager La Financière de l’Echiquier.

Manuel Dalla Corte has been hired as country head for Switzerland, where Eurizon has opened a new office. Dalla Corte has 14 years of experience in investment management distribution, most recently as business development director at Aviva Investors in Zurich.

Marco Bus was appointed CEO of Eurizon Capital in Luxembourg on 2 July, and the group has begun the authorisation process for opening a distribution office in Spain.

Northern Trust Asset Management – Marie Dzanis has been appointed to lead the $1.2trn asset manager’s business across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

In this newly created role, Dzanis will be responsible for governance, business management, business development and talent management. She was previously head of intermediary distribution at Northern Trust Asset Management in Chicago. She has also worked at iShares, BlackRock, JP Morgan Asset Management and Smith Barney.

Aviva Investors  – Aviva has expanded its global responsible investment team with several hires. Rick Stathers will join in August as a senior ESG analyst alongside Sora Utzinger, who joined recently in the same position. They were previously both at CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project.

In addition, Nathan Lerclerc is returning to Aviva Investors from proxy voting agency ISS. He will be a senior analyst, succeeding Anita Skipper, who recently retired. Leclerc’s role will focus on delivering the business’s responsible ownership obligations, including proxy voting, company engagement and integrating ESG into investment.

Pensions Federation – The Dutch Pensions Federation has appointed Edith Maat as co-director, effective from 1 October in a dual role with current director Gerard Riemen. Maat has been deputy director and head of policy at the industry organisation since 2012. She joined from the Dutch ministry of social affairs, where she was department head.

CFA Institute – Heather Brilliant and Diane Nordin have been elected chair and vice chair, respectively, of the board of governors of the CFA Institute. It is the first time the top two leadership positions at the global investment management organisation have been held by women.

Brilliant will take up her role on 1 September and succeeds Robert Jenkins. She is currently managing director for the Americas at First State Investments, and was previously CEO of Morningstar Australia. Nordin is a director of US mortgage giant Fannie Mae, and has previously worked at Wellington Management.

“Building a better world for investors involves challenging industry norms and closing the gender gap, as well as raising standards in our profession,” said Paul Smith, president and CEO of the institute. “That sounds like a tall order but with Heather at the helm of our board, supported by Diane Nordin as vice chair and the rest of the Board, I am confident that we will continue to make meaningful progress.”

The Pensions Management Institute (PMI) – Lesley Carline has been elected as the organisation’s new president with effect from its annual general meeting on 11 July. She succeeds Robert Branagh, whose tenure began in August 2017.

Carline was previously vice president of the PMI, serving on the advisory council and its board. She has been involved in numerous consultations with the Pensions Regulator, the Department for Work and Pensions and has recently worked with the regulator on trustee and scheme business plans. She is also currently a director at KGC Associates. Lesley Alexander is now a vice president alongside Lorraine Harper.  

Dufas – Roelie van Wijk has been appointed as chair of Dufas, the lobbying organisation for asset managers and custodians operating in the Netherlands. She succeeds Toine van der Stee, chief executive of Blue Sky Group. Her appointment is for a two-year term.

Until 2018, Van Wijk had been chief executive of Aegon subsidiary TKP Investments for the past 10 years. At the start of 2018 she became head of responsible business and public affairs at Aegon Asset Management.

EY – Rob Ekkebus has joined the board of the €1.3bn Dutch pension fund of Ernst & Young, representing pensioners and deferred members. He succeeds Bert Koekkoek, who left after completing his maximum statutory term. The pension fund seeking a replacement for employer representative Lorenco van Wieringen, who stepped down in June.

M&G – Asset manager M&G has appointed Sander van der Wel as senior institutional business development manager. He joins from Aegon Asset Management, where he worked in a similar role for a three-year period. Prior to this, he worked in London for Citigroup and Barclays where he was director of fixed income sales for EMEA for Dutch and Belgian institutional investors. Van der Wel succeeds Luuk Veenstra, who is to continue in a senior role elsewhere in M&G.

Alcentra – The fixed income manager has hired Sarah Madore and Maria Garcia Diego as associates in its European direct lending team. Joanna Layton was hired internally and promoted to head of European direct lending portfolio monitoring. She is also deputy head of European credit. Madore joins from UniCredit in Milan and Garcia Diego previously worked in the financial sponsors team at Citi. 

Groupama Asset Management – The €103bn French asset manager has appointed Servane Duforest as head of multi-asset management, reporting to Gaëlle Malléjac, director of investments, active management. Duforest has worked at Groupama since 2008, when she joined as senior analyst and manager. She participated in the development of the multi-management expertise of Groupama Funds Pickers and Groupama AM. Since 2011, she has been in charge of directional multi-management.

Adams Street Partners – The private equity specialist has appointed Steve Landau to the newly created role of head of product strategy. He was previously head of product development at alternatives manager FS Investments, and has also worked at New York Life Investment Management, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and UBS Global Asset Management. 

Insight Investment – The UK-based fund manager has appointed Marc Pautz as a client director. He was previously a defined benefits strategist within the investment business of Mercer, where he worked with a number of the consultancy’s largest pension clients on investment policy and implementation. At Insight, he will lead the firm’s relationships and engagements with a number of clients.

Vontobel AM – The Swiss asset manager has hired Yann Lepape to its bond team, specialising in global flexible bonds. He joins from Oddo BHF AM, where he was a member of the group’s investment committee and was responsible for global macro analysis. He was previously an adviser to the French treasury department.

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