People moves: PMT names chair; BNP Paribas hires data chief

PMT, BNP Paribas AM, AFM, Vanguard, Smart Pension, ING, NN, Notariaat, DNB, Telegraaf, Amundi, RWC Partners, MFS, Erste Asset Management, FERI Trust, Milestone Group

PMT – Jos Brocken has started as the employee’s chairman of PMT, the €68bn Dutch pension fund for metalworking and mechanical engineering. He succeeds Jos Berghuis, who retired at the end of 2017 after 17 years at the helm.

Brocken has been a member of PMT’s board since 2006. At that time, he also started as trustee of PME, the €47bn scheme for the metal and electro-technical engineering sector, which he also chaired for a few years. Brocken has been director for the metal industry at labour union FNV and led the negotiatons for a single collective labour agreement for the sector.

BNP Paribas Asset Management – Christophe Bonnefoux has joined the French bank’s asset management arm as its first chief data officer. He is responsible for data management, including quality control and usage of data across the business.

Bonnefoux has worked in data and business analytics roles for more than 20 years, including roles at Arthur Andersen, Ernst & Young and Accenture Digital.

Fabrice Silberzan, chief operating officer, said the new role was a “key step” in the company’s data work, which includes artificial intelligence and digital development. “The areas for which Christophe is responsible are key to the future of our company, and his extensive experience, including knowledge of digital challenges and big data will be of considerable benefit,” Silberzan added.

AFM – Dutch finance minister Wopke Hoekstra has appointed Martin van Rijn as a member of the supervisory board (RvT) of communication watchdog Authority Financial Markets (AFM) as of 1 February. He has been appointed for a four-year period.

From 2008 to 2012, Van Rijn was chief executive of PGGM, the €206bn asset manager of healthcare scheme PFZW. Until March last year, he was state secretary for healthcare and sports. Paul Rosenmöller, chairman of the RvT, described Van Rijn as “a managerial heavyweight, who has much experience in the supervision by regulators AFM and De Nederlandsche Bank”. Van Rijn succeeded Bart Koolstra, who left in April.

Vanguard – The giant US asset manager is creating a new European investment stewardship team, based in London. Adrienne Monley has been promoted to the new role of head of investment stewardship, Europe to etablish and lead the team.

Vanguard used to manage its stewardship and proxy voting from its global headquarters in the US, and Monley was previously a senior manager and strategist in the US-based stewardship team. The London-based team will be responsible for engagement with public companies in the UK and Europe, and for proxy voting. It will “enable Vanguard to deepen its participation in European stewardship and corporate governance industry groups”, the asset manager said in a statement. 

Smart Pension – Paul Budgen has left NEST, the UK government-established master trust, to join competitor auto-enrolment provider Smart Pension as director of business development. Known as ‘Budgie’ in the industry, Budgen joined NEST in 2013, with previous roles at investment houses such as Legal & General, Aviva, HSBC and Aegon. 

In a statement, Budgen said he joined NEST “to be at the heart of auto-enrolment” and that as auto-enrolment moves to the next stage he had decided to take up a role at Smart Pension as that was “where the industry innovation is at”. He starts at Smart Pension next week. 

ING/NN – Sebastiaan van den Dries has started as director of the collective defined contribution schemes of both ING and NN in the Netherlands. He joined from Shell, where he was defined contribution (DC) plan manager for the past five years, setting up Shell’s DC pension fund for new workers. Prior to this, Van den Dries was director of pensions and benefits advisory at Deloitte.

Pensioenfonds Notariaat – Paul Braams has been appointed as chairman of the supervisory board of the pension fund of notaries and their staff. He succeeds Niko van Niekerk, who left at the end of 2017. Braams has been director of the sector scheme for hospitality and catering (Pensioenfonds Horeca en Catering) since 2009, and is also chairman of the supervisory board of the low-cost DC vehicle of Nationale Nederlanden. He has ample experience in the pensions sector, including 13 years at PGGM, where he left as advice director in 2008.

Pensioenfonds DNB – Roeland van Vledder has started as new independent chairman of the pension fund of supervisor De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). He has succeeded Floris Schilthuis, who has completed two three-year terms. Van Vledder is also chairman of SPIN, the Dutch company fund of IT giant IBM as well as non-executive board member of De Nationale APF, the general pension fund of Nationale Nederlanden. He has been a member of the executive board of insurer ASR until 2012.

Telegraafpensioenfonds – The €1.1bn company pension fund of Dutch daily De Telegraaf has established a new supervisory board. It comprises Rein Godding as chairman, who is tasked with governance and general matters, Peter Mannaert, responsible for financial and economic affairs and asset management, and Renske Biezeveld, who looks after communication and legal matters.

Godding is director of the pension fund of pure play asset manager Robeco, while Mannaert is a board member and chairman of the investment committees of the sector schemes for bakers and dental technicians. Biezeveld is policy adviser for pensions at pensions provider and asset manager MN.

The supervisory board (RvT) of the Telegraafpensioenfonds replaced the scheme’s visitation committee for internal supervision following new legislation (Verzamelwet Pensioenen), which made an RvT mandatory for company pension funds with assets exceeding €1bn.

Amundi Asset Management – The European investment giant has named Alexandre Drabowicz as deputy head of its equity investment platform. He will help oversee the platform’s European equity, volatility, convertible bonds, Japanese equity and global equity investments. He joined Amundi in 2008 as head of investment specialists for equities. Drabowicz worked in portfolio management at French hedge fund Systeia Capital Management between 2001 and 2008.

RWC Partners – The UK investment boutique has hired Pierre Giannini as head of southern Europe, including France. He previously led Japanese firm Daiwa SB Investments’ southern European operations. RWC is targeting new business in continental Europe and ran roughly $14bn (€11.4bn) at the end of 2017.

MFS Investment Management – Owen Murfin has joined the company as an institutional portfolio manager within the London-based fixed income team. He was previously at BlackRock, where he worked as a fixed income manager for 15 years. He also spent five years at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. In his new role Murfin will work mainly on MFS’ Global Credit and Aggregate strategies.

Erste Asset Management – The Austrian asset manager is expanding its management board from three to four directors, with Wolfgang Traindl and Peter Karl joining as of next month. Traindl replaces Christian Schön and will be responsible for institutional sales and internal audit. Karl will be responsible for product management and retail sales Austria, and he will also provide input into alternative investments in light of his experience as director of ERSTE Immobilien KAG, Erste’s real estate manager. Karl will remain chairman of the management board of ERSTE Immobilien KAG. 

FERI – Ahmet Peker has joined FERI Trust’s institutional client team, with responsibility for expanding relations with German employers and company Pensionskassen, and building out Feri Trust’s liquid multi-asset and alternative investment services. Peker was previously at Deka Investment as senior portfolio manager for DACH hedge funds and multi-asset factor premia strategies. 

Milestone Group – Paul Roberts has been promoted to chief executive officer, having previously been responsible for the technology provider’s Europe, Middle East and Africa business. Geoff Hodge, co-founder previous CEO, becomes executive chairman and president of North America for the company. Milestone provides managed technology solutions for investment managers.