PGGM, Northern Pool, VBV, Notariaat, BMO GAM, Smart Pension, Man Group, Altis, AFM, Hymans Robertson, Inflection Point, SSGA, Sackers, LawDeb

PGGM – The €206bn Dutch asset manager has appointed Hans op ‘t Veld as head of responsible investment, to start on 1 May. Currently, Op ‘t Veld is head of listed real estate at PGGM as well as manager of its €11bn listed property fund.

He has been working at PGGM since 2007. Prior to this, he worked at MSCI and Kempen. Op ‘t Veld succeeds Marcel Jeucken, who left in November to start a self-employed career. His role was temporarily filled by Frank Roeters van Lennep, CIO of private markets.

Northern Pool/LGPS – Ian Greenwood has been named chair of the Northern Pool, a £42bn investment collaboration between the Greater Manchester, Merseyside, and West Yorkshire local government pension funds. Greenwood is deputy chair of the West Yorkshire fund and also of the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum. He succeeds Kieran Quinn, who died in December.

Greenwood said: “Kieran will be a hard act to follow, but like him I firmly believe our approach will enable us to ensure we remain the most cost-effective and efficient pool in the local government pension scheme, underpinned by a simple but effective democratic governance structure. This will ensure the Northern Pool maintains the good investment returns and low costs that have resulted in low contribution rates for the benefit of taxpayers.”  

VBV Group – Andreas Zakostelsky is to become the chief executive of the €9.4bn Austrian group’s provident fund from October, replacing the retiring Heinz Behacker, who has also been the chief financial officer of VBV Holding.

At the €3.3bn VBV Vorsorgekasse Zakostelsky will be joined by Michaela Attermeyer, who has been head of department at VBV’s pension fund. Martin Vöros is staying on as a member of the Vorsorgekasse’s board, and has been appointed the successor of Behacker as CFO on the holding company board. Zakostelsky has been VBV group chief executive since 2016, when he replaced Karl Timmel. Behacker has led the VBV group since it began operating in 2003. 

Pensioenfonds Notariaat – Nienke Bijlholt has been named as trustee of the €2.8bn pension fund for legal notaries and their staff. Bijlholt, a junior notary at VBC Notarissen, is currently chair of the Pensioenkamer, the fund’s sponsor that is responsible for its pension arrangements. She succeeds Marinus de Waal, who represented notaries’ employees on the board.

BMO Global Asset Management – Bart Kuijpers has been appointed as managing director and head of fiduciary management for the Netherlands at BMO Global Asset Management as of 1 April.

Kuijpers was previously CEO of IPP-SE, a joint venture between Swiss Re and Credit Suisse which had established the low-cost defined contribution (DC) vehicle i-PensionSolutions. Prior to this, Kuijpers was managing director at Credit Suisse. At BMO he succeeds Ernst Hagen, who is to fully focus on a small group of strategic clients at the company.

Smart Pension – Darren Philp, currently director of policy and market engagement at multi-employer DC provider The People’s Pension, is joining Smart Pensions as head of policy in September.

A well-known figure in the UK pensions industry, Philp was director of policy at the UK pension fund association before joining B&CE, the provider of The People’s Pension auto-enrolment scheme, in October 2013. Philp also worked at the UK treasury department for almost 13 years.

Man Group – The listed asset manager has appointed Simon Finch to the newly created role of CIO for credit at Man GLG, its discretionary investment management arm. He will join Man Group’s executive committee and Man GLG’s management team. He was previously CIO at fixed income specialist CQS where he had worked since 2004.

Altis – The fiduciary management subsidiary of NN Investment Partners has added three portfolio managers to its alternatives research team. Robbert Staal, senior portfolio manager for real estate, joined at the beginning of March. He previously worked at Blue Sky Group, CBRE and ING Real Estate and is experienced in listed and non-listed real estate.

Menno Meekel, senior portfolio manager for fixed income, will join effective 1 April. He previously worked at Rabobank and IRIS and has extensive experience in fixed income, manager selection and monitoring. Arjan van der Loo will join as senior portfolio manager for alternatives on 1 May. He previously worked at MN, Morgan Stanley and KPMG.

AFM – The Dutch cabinet has reappointed Merel van Vroonhoven for a second four-year term as executive chair of communication watchdog Authority Financial Markets (AFM). The supervisor’s executive board still has a vacancy after the departure of Femke de Vries, who left at year-end. The AFM is also seeking an additional fourth board member, which it said was necessary because of the increasing digital and international aspects of the financial sector.

Hymans Robertson – The UK consultancy has named Alistair Russell-Smith as head of corporate defined benefit practice. He has worked at the firm since 2000 and was made a partner four years ago. He primarily advises corporate and charity clients on funding and investment strategies, benefits strategy and member options, and de-risking.

Inflection Point Capital Management (IPCM) – At the end of June Matthew Kiernan will retire as chief executive of the sustainability-oriented investment research boutique that he launched with La Française in 2013. Groupe La Française this week announced it would acquire full ownership of IPCM and rebrand it Inflection Point by La Française. Kiernan will stay on as a non-executive board member. Roland Rott, who has been responsible for ESG integration and responsible investment research since July 2016, will become managing director of the new entity.

State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) – The investment manager has hired Kathleen Gallagher as head of ETF model portfolios for the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions. Before joining SSGA, Gallagher was at BlackRock where she was most recently head of investment strategy in the iShares solutions team.  

Sackers – The pensions law firm has appointed Paige Willis as associate in its alternative funding and contingent asset practice. Willis was previously at Ashurst, where she worked in the securities and derivatives team since qualifying in March 2017. 

LawDeb Pension Trustees – Edward Levy has joined the firm as a new trustee director, having previously been group strategic projects director at Aviva. Before that he worked at Abbey National plc and Lloyds TSB Group. 

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