People moves: Shell’s pensions head joins PSF in CEO role

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The Pension Superfund, Border to Coast, State Street Global Advisors, Goldman Sachs AM, PKA, ThomasLloyd, Dalriada Trustees, Charles Stanley

The Pension SuperFund (PSF) – The superfund has named Michael Clark as its chief executive officer. He joins PSF from Shell where he has been global head of pensions, responsible for the governance and administration of all the group’s pension arrangements.

Luke Webster, co-founder of the Pension SuperFund and former CEO, said: “We are delighted that Michael has agreed to join PSF, bringing his exceptional pedigree in pensions management and adding considerable additional capacity as the organisation moves towards a new phase of operations.”

Webster added that the move would allow PSF “to further enhance our governance and separation of duties, allowing me to represent capital providers’ interests whilst Michael leads the executive team and works with the trustees to ensure members’ best interests are always paramount”.

State Street Global Advisors – Cyrus Taraporevala, president and CEO of State Street Global Advisors, will retire in 2022. Taraporevala will remain in his role through the completion of the search for his successor and transition process to ensure a seamless succession which the firm anticipates happening in the second half of this year.

Taraporevala joined State Street Global Advisors in 2016 and held a variety of senior leadership roles including responsibility for leading the global institutional client, product and marketing teams. He was appointed president and CEO in late 2017.

Under his leadership, the firm has delivered impressive growth and the results have been an important component of State Street’s overall performance. Over the course of Taraporevala’s tenure, State Street’s investment management pre-tax earnings grew by 67% and pre-tax margin expanded by 11 percentage points from 21% in 2017 to 32% in 2021.

In the firm’s financial results announced today, State Street Global Advisors finished this past year with assets under management of $4.1trn (€3.6trn), up almost 50% from end-2017.

Border to Coast Pensions Partnership – John Harrison has become interim chief investment officer for the second time at the local government pension scheme asset pool following Daniel Booth’s decision to leave to establish a UK-based family office for a wealthy individual.

Harrison acted as interim CIO when Border to Coast was first launched in 2018 and has continued to act as an adviser, which has included being a member of the investment committee. He has been the UK CIO for UBS, managing director of MJ Hudson and, most recently, the interim CIO for the British Airways Pension Fund, until March 2020. Last year the trustees of British Airways’ pension schemes announced an asset outsourcing deal with BlackRock.

On his decision to leave, Booth said: “We’ve built something really special at Border to Coast. Over the last three years we’ve built a strong and capable investment team, responsible for more than £34bn. However, as we have grown, I’ve missed being involved in the day-to-day investment process. Having been approached to establish a professional investment capability on behalf of a family, this role will allow me to focus more of my attentions on the areas of my job that I love.”

CEO Rachel Elwell said Booth would be missed, but that in Harrison Border to Coast had “an experienced CIO who understands both the LGPS and Border to Coast’s role within it”.

PKA – The Danish pension fund manager had appointed Helle Vestmar Winther as its new environmental, social and governance (ESG) adviser. She replaces Christine Søby, who left to join the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority, PKA told IPE.

Vestmar Winther joins the firm from her most recent role as ESG manager at Industriens Pension, where she worked for over a year, having also previously been a political consultant for Danish lobby group Insurance & Pension Denmark. She started work in her new role at the beginning of January, PKA said.

Goldman Sachs Asset Management – Christy Jesudasan has joined the firm to lead the sales and distribution of its UK fiduciary management business, based in London.

Prior to joining Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jesudasan grew fiduciary management businesses at BMO, Kempen and Mercer. As an institutional specialist with 25 years of client-facing and sales experience within the pension and investment industry, he brings a wealth of experience in engaging with pension scheme trustees, corporate sponsors and third-party evaluators.

ThomasLloyd – The sustainable energy infrastructure expert firm has hired Gianluca Cerami to the newly-created role of executive director, wholesale and institutional clients Nordics.

Cerami, who will be based in Copenhagen, is bringing two decades of experience in investment management including 12 years working directly with institutional investors and intermediaries in the region. He was most recently GAM’s client director for institutions and intermediaries in Northern Europe. Prior to his position at GAM, Cerami worked in New York, Amsterdam and Stockholm for Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management. He also worked at Morgan Stanley after starting his career with Oppenheimer & Co in New York.

At ThomasLloyd, Cerami’s new remit will focus on introducing the firm and its offering to investors in the Nordic region and build partnerships with institutional investors and wholesale clients including pension funds, endowments, banks, wealth managers, family offices and investment platforms across Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.

Blue Earth Capital – The Swiss impact investment firm has named Stephen Marquardt as its new CEO, effective 1 March. Marquardt succeeds the current CEO and co-founder of Blue Earth Urs Baumann, who will leave the investment firm on 31 May.

Baumann will continue to work for the firm as an advisor to the board of directors and as an investor in the funds.

Marquardt has been active in private equity and venture capital during his career. He served as CEO of private equity firm Doughty Hanson & Co, on the board and investment committee of Bridges Ventures, the UK-based specialist private markets investor focusing on impact investments; and on the executive committee of Coller Capital Ltd.

Dalriada Trustees Limited – The independent professional trustee services firm has appointed Kate Lloyd as a professional trustee. She joins from Gateley’s pensions team, where she was a partner advising trustee boards and corporate sponsors on a range of pensions law issues, including pension scheme funding and pension plan reconstructions.

Before joining Gateley, Lloyd was a senior associate at Squire Patton Boggs, the same firm at which she completed her legal training contract.

In total, Lloyd brings over 25 years of pensions experience to her new role and will be based in Dalriada’s Birmingham office. She is well known amongst the Midlands pensions community having previously been a committee member of the Pensions Management Institute’s Midlands Regional Group and a former chair of the Midlands Association of Pension Lawyers.

Charles Stanley – Patrick Farrell has been hired as head of research and CIO at the £27.4bn asset management firm. He was previously CIO for the Suncorp Group, the largest general insurance group in Australia, as well as BT Financial Group, the wealth and asset management arm of Westpac, one of Australia’s ‘big four’ banks.

Farrell will chair the investment committee and further develop the framework for the investment strategy and processes, as well as the responsible investing and ESG offering at Charles Stanley.