People moves: PGGM chief executive returns to work, CFO to leave

PGGM, Ryerson University, KPA Advisory, National Institute on Ageing, WTW, Nikko Asset Management, BNPP, The Investor Forum, TPR Retirement Solutions, Amundi

PGGM – Edwin Velzel, chief executive of the €217bn asset manager and pensions provider PGGM, has returned to his position after five months’ absence due to illness. Kees Beuving, a veteran in the financial sector, was named temporary chief executive in January and worked as co-CEO with Paul Boomkamp, PGGM’s chief finance and risk officer. Beuving had been willing to stay on as long as needed.

PGGM also said that Boomkamp would leave after the summer, following his appointment as financial trustee at Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam. Boomkamp started at PGGM in 2015. Before then he worked at the insurers Aegon and Axa as well as the Catharina Hospital in Eindhoven.

Ryerson University – Internationally recognised pension expert Keith Ambachtsheer has been appointed senior fellow in retirement income security at the Canadian university’s National Institute on Ageing (NIA), a think tank specialising in “policy solutions at the intersections of healthcare, financial security, and social well-being”. 

Michael Nicin, NIA executive director, said: “Keith’s credentials, leadership, and willingness to tackle difficult questions on the Canadian retirement income landscape make him invaluable to our growing organisation.”

Ambachsheer is co-founder of KPA Advisory Services and CEM Benchmarking Inc and holds myriad other roles, including adjunct professor of finance at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, and director emeritus of its International Centre for Pension Management. 

Willis Towers Watson – Alfred Kool, senior consultant for strategy and communication at Willis Towers Watson in the Netherlands, is to leave the company after eight years in the job. As of 1 May, he is to start as an independent adviser for strategic pensions communication, while also remaining available for WTW as an external adviser.

Before joining WTW Kool was co-founder of communication firm Kool Baas & De Quelerij and worked as an independent communication consultant since 2005. In 1997 he started as director of communication at pension fund PGGM .

Nikko Asset Management – The $201.8bn (€178.4bn) Japanese investment group has appointed a new global executive committee, naming six existing staff members to work alongside Junichi Sayato, chairman and co-CEO, and Hideo Abe, president and co-CEO, in supporting the management of the company. This will be effective 1 May.

The individuals are: Yuji Ooyagi, Hiroki Tsujimura, Osamu Morita, Kunihiro Asai, Stefanie Drews, and Maho Nakada. They will each be responsible for a specified part of the business, and assist the co-CEOs “on all relevant matters”. 

Nikko said the new organisational arrangement will “further strengthen [the company’s] management systems, appropriately delegate authority, and thereby speed up business execution”. 

BNP Paribas Securities Services – Mark Schilstra has been hired as head of securities services for the Netherlands and Nordic area. He succeeded Robert van Kerkhoff, who started as head of Luxembourg, Netherlands and the Nordics on 1 March. During the past two years, Schilstra worked at State Street Bank, where he had been co-head of its operations team in Luxembourg. 

The Investor Forum – Luba Nikulina, global head of manager research at Willis Tower Watson, joined the not-for-profit organisation’s board of directors as a non-executive director effective 1 April.

Simon Fraser, chairman of The Investor Forum, said “she brings the range of perspectives of her asset owner clients that we were seeking, as well as diversity of experience and competencies”. The Investor Forum organises and facilities dialogue between shareholders and companies, and was set up by institutional investors following the findings of the 2012 Kay Review of the UK equity market and long-term decision-making.

TPT Retirement Solutions – The UK master trust has hired Gill Walker as business development manager. Walker joins from NOW: Pensions, where she was regional partnership manager, and has also held senior roles at Legal & General, Aegon and Scottish Equitable.

Amundi –  Ryan Myerberg has been appointed head of absolute return, global fixed income, joining Amundi from Janus Henderson Investors where he was a senior portfolio manager for global macro and global credit strategies. Before that he was head of European fixed income for CF Global Trading in the UK and a trader at BlueMountain Capital Management in London.