PKA, JP Morgan Asset Management, NN Investment Partners, Polar Capital, Ossiam, Goldman Sachs AM, Lombard Odier Investment Managers, ITS, Morningstar, Barnett Waddingham, UK Financial Guidance Body

PKA – Pelle Pedersen, head of responsible investment at the DKK275bn (€37bn) Danish pension fund, is leaving the group at the end of July to establish his own business.

Pedersen – who has worked at PKA for five and a half years – said he was planning to set up a new company aiming to close the financing and knowledge gaps for impact startup firms.

PKA said it was working to appoint a replacement for Pedersen.

JP Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) – The US investment giant has made a number of hires to expand its European exchange-traded funds (ETFs) business and its global fixed income division.

Philip Annecke is the group’s new head of ETF distribution for Germany and Austria, focusing on institutional clients, having joined from rival provider Invesco Powershares. For Italian clients, Roberta Gastaldello has joined from Amundi to lead ETF distribution from Milan.

Tobias Nilsson joins from Wisdom Tree, another rival ETF provider, to head up distribution for the Nordic region from Stockholm. Meanwhile, Madrid-based sales executive Lorena Martinez-Olivares has had her role expanded to support JPMAM’s distribution efforts in Spain.

JPMAM has also poached Andrew Moore from Vanguard as an ETF capital markets specialist. He will be based in London along with Antonia Millard, sales executive for the international ETF business, who has transferred from JP Morgan’s Corporate & Investment Bank.

In its fixed income business, JPMAM has hired a number of London-based investment specialists to support its fund management teams with client communication. Karine Mercado joins as lead investment specialist for core fixed income strategies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). She was previously at German chemical company BASF’s pension schemes where she ran credit portfolios.

Rohan Duggal focuses on high yield strategies in EMEA, including distressed debt and leveraged loans. He was previously a senior portfolio specialist at Blue Mountain Capital Partners. Claire Cullen has moved from JPMAM’s global fixed income, currency and commodities team where she was chief finance officer. She specialises global credit strategies in EMEA.

In addition, Giles Bedford has been appointed emerging market debt specialist, Liam Moore will support the unconstrained fixed income team, and Wei Chu focuses on insurance bonds.

NN IP – Asset manager NN Investment Partners has named Gül Poslu as a director in its institutional clients team for the Netherlands, tasked with further developing the group’s fiduciary services. She is to report to Maureen Schleejen, head of institutional clients for the Netherlands.

Poslu joins from Achmea. She has 10 years of experience in both the financial and the commercial sector and has had positions at both asset managers and insurers.

Polar Capital – The UK-based investment boutique has hired a four-man investment team from Nordea to boost its emerging markets offering.

The team is led by Jorry Rask Nøddekær, head of emerging markets and Asia, and includes fund managers Michael Wang and Jerry Wu, and analyst Peter Andersen. Polar also hired Andy Chen from Laxey Partners as head of research.

Chen is based in Singapore, while the rest of the team will relocate to London. Rask Nøddekær said: “Despite the debate surrounding Brexit, London is still the heart of the asset management industry and it feels good to be part of that now.”

At Nordea, Rask Nøddekær and his team ran nine funds collectively worth more than $6bn (€5.1bn). The quintet is expected to launch its first product in the third quarter of this year, Polar Capital said. 

Ossiam – The French smart beta specialist has hired Antonio Celeste as head of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) business development. He joins from Sustainalytics where he worked for seven years, latterly as institutional relations director for Europe and the Middle East.

Ossiam CEO Bruno Poulin said Celeste was “deeply experienced” in ESG with “strong quantitative abilities”. He added that the appointment demonstrated “the importance of ESG-based investment to the company”.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management – GSAM has hired Peter Thompson to lead its European ETF business. He was a founder of Source ETF, establishing the company as an independent provider before its sale to Invesco in 2016. Prior to that, Peter spent over 10 years in various trading roles in Goldman Sachs’ securities division.

Lombard Odier Investment Managers – Marek Siwicki has joined the asset manager as head of consultant relations. Based in London, Siwicki is responsible for increasing Lombard Odier IM’s coverage of the consultant market globally, and helping shape product development for the institutional market.

He will report to Jonathan Clenshaw, head of institutional sales Europe at Lombard Odier IM. Siwicki was previously at Western Asset Management, and before that he worked at Man Investments and Gartmore Investment Management. He also spent eight years at Aon Consulting as a senior investment consultant. 

Independent Trustee Services – Frank Oldham has been hired as a client director with a view to adding to the professional trustee firm’s coverage of larger pension schemes in the south of England. Oldman joins ITS after holding several senior leadership positions as a senior partner at Mercer. He left the global consulting group last year. 

Morningstar – Morningstar Investment Management Europe has hired Steve Croucher as its chief operating officer (COO) with responsibility for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region. He most recently served as COO at Rockfire Capital. He has also been COO at Border & Cie, Insynergy Investment Management, and Skandia Investment Group.  

Barnett Waddingham – The UK actuarial and consultancy firm has promoted four staff to partners. Adam Poulson works with DB pension clients on risk reduction, scheme funding, pension benefit design and accounting disclosures. Barbara Fewkes provides actuarial and consultancy advice to a wide range of UK pension schemes and employers.

Jon Palin specialises in longevity advice, working with the Continuous Mortality Investigation – he is responsible for the production of its industry-standard Mortality Projections Model and the new S3 series mortality tables. Liam Mayne advises companies on legacy DB pension plans.

In addition, Barnett Waddingham has promoted 25 staff to associates.

UK Single Finance Guidance Body – Hector Sants, the former chief executive of the Financial Services Authority – the forerunner of the current UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority – has been appointed as the chair of the new Single Financial Guidance Body.

Sants – a former European CEO of Credit Suisse – will oversee the new organisation created from combining the UK’s existing guidance bodies, including the Money Advice Service, the Pensions Advisory Service and Pension Wise.

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