Manulife, NEST, ZEDRA, MinPension, PFA, Federated Hermes, AEIP, T. Rowe Price, AXA IM Alts, Generali, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, London CIV
NEST – Helen Copinger-Symes, Nina Hingorani-Crain, and Nikki Marsh have been appointed to NEST’s board by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Appointed for her knowledge of investment and pensions, Copinger-Symes has more than 30 years of experience in financial services, initially in fixed income capital markets, followed by an extensive career in institutional asset management focussing on investments for UK pension funds. She has worked for several global investment firms including Deutsche Asset Management, Invesco Perpetual, AllianceBernstein and State Street Global Advisors, in addition to a boutique equity hedge fund.
Copinger-Symes currently serves as a non-executive director on the Pension SuperFund (PSF) Holdings and PSF Sponsor boards. She is a trustee for the Rifles Regimental Museum Trust and is a trustee and chair of the investment committee for DHL (UK) Foundation overseeing the foundation’s portfolio of assets.
Hingorani-Crain has had a diverse 25-year career with leadership roles in the public, regulatory, corporate and charity sectors. Her executive career was largely in financial services and includes 10 years advising UK and global financial services organisations, followed by 10 years in senior roles at the UK’s financial regulator, including as chief of staff and principal private secretary to the chair during the global financial crisis.
After leading the establishment of the Financial Conduct Authority, Hingorani-Crain undertook a six-month secondment to Age UK to inform the strategy of placing consumer needs at the heart of the new regulatory mandate, which laid the groundwork for the regulatory focus on vulnerable customers. Since 2015, she has focused on a non-executive career and has sat on several boards in the public and private sectors. She currently serves on the boards of National Savings & Investments, and an NHS Foundation Trust.
Focussing on driving customer-centric culture in organisations, Marsh has had a successful leadership career in financial services spanning 13 years, including 10 years in the mutual sector interspersed with seven years as a senior civil servant in the public sector. She has covered a broad range of roles within her career including marketing, digital transformation, and communications. She also spent several years as a trustee for a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving the way people are cared for and supporting staff who deliver care and is currently a non-executive director at Penrith Building Society and an executive coach.
There have been two departures from the NEST board: Clive Elphick retired from the board on 31 January and Mutaz Qubbaj stepped down from the board on 31 May, following the conclusion of his term.
PFA – Peder Hasslev is stepping down as chair of Denmark’s PFA. The Copenhagen-based pension provider said Hasslev had made the decision because of his recent appointment as chief executive officer of Sweden’s biggest pension fund Alecta, and that he wanted to focus his efforts on his new role.
Jacob Holbraad, PFA’s current deputy chair, will become temporary chair of the board until a new permanent chair is found, the Danish pensions firm said.
Holbraad said of Hasslev: “Peder is the epitome of integrity, and at the same time he has a strong strategic vision, which has led PFA in the right direction.”
London CIV – Martin Gloyne has been appointed as chief operating officer, a new role reporting directly to the CEO and focusing on delivering high quality operational services to the benefit of the business and clients.
Brian Lee remains as chief financial officer and executive director, and will take on a more strategic delivery role.
Gloyne, who joined London CIV on 26 June 2023, has more than 30 years of experience within investment management firms largely working within the pensions industry and supporting multiple client and product types. This includes previous experience at COO level and consultancy roles. He has significant experience in business risk management, control frameworks and associated management reporting and in managing key service suppliers, including fund administrators, depositaries and IT infrastructure.
Most recently Gloyne was COO of Quilter Investors Limited where he had responsibility for the day to day administration of the Quilter Investors funds. During his career, he spent a number of years at Aviva Investors in senior roles continuously adapting the operating model to support the changing business and corporate needs. Martin also spent several years as an Operations Consultant helping a range of investment managers solve their operational challenges.
Columbia Threadneedle Investments – Nick Ring, CEO EMEA at the firm, will retire at the end of 2023 following a long and successful 34-year career in the investment industry. As a result, David Logan, global chief operating officer at Columbia Threadneedle, will be appointed to the new role of head of EMEA and global business operations, subject to regulatory approval.
Ring joined Columbia Threadneedle as CEO, EMEA, in 2019, having previously been global head of product for seven years. Over the past four years he has managed the regional business through the COVID pandemic and the successful acquisition and ongoing integration of BMO’s EMEA asset management business in 2021.
Logan has over 17 years’ experience in asset management and has a breadth of knowledge and expertise having held roles across operations, finance and distribution. He joined Columbia Threadneedle in 2021 as part of the acquisition of the EMEA asset management business of BMO and since that time has been an integral part of the EMEA leadership team as well as overseeing global operations. Prior to his career in asset management, he spent 12 years in the accounting profession advising asset managers, holding partner roles at Deloitte and Andersen.
Federated Hermes – Sian Long has been named investment director, impact and sustainable equity strategies, to meet accelerating client demand for responsible investment solutions.
Based in London, Long will be a client facing-representative for Federated Hermes sustainable global equity, impact opportunities, SDG engagement and biodiversity strategies, interfacing with external client stakeholders and enhancing the investment team’s capacity to maintain close management of portfolios.
She reports into James Cook, head of investment specialists.
Long has 15 years of investment experience and a significant track record of presenting and delivering long-term asset growth in impact and sustainable equity strategies across institutional and wholesale clients. Prior to joining Federated Hermes, she worked for AXA Investment Managers where she was a senior equity investment specialist.
From 2019-2021, Long was an associate investment director at Schroders covering global equity sustainable growth and global equity climate change strategies.
MinPension – Cecilia Rosendahl-Lavén, head of marketing and communication at Swedish pension fund AMF, is leaving the firm, having been appointed as the new CEO of minPension.
MinPension is the Swedish pensions information portal, which is a collaboration between the state and pension providers.
Rosendahl Lavén has worked at AMF since 2000 in various roles, over the years having been in charge of analysis, communication and developing AMF’s digital customer meetings. Between 2016 and 2020, she was also a member of minPension’s board. She will take up her new role at minPension this autumn.
ZEDRA – The pension and incentive services provider has appointed Douglas Hogg as client director, ZEDRA Governance. He will be based in Edinburgh and lead the expansion of ZEDRA’s pensions presence in Scotland.
This follows the appointment in May of Phil Clark as client director in the London office.
Hogg has worked in the pensions and investment industry for over 20 years, including within a global asset manager, a bulk purchase annuity provider, and as an actuary providing advice to trustees and corporate sponsors of pension schemes.
T. Rowe Price – Robert Higginbotham, head of global distribution and global product, plans to retire at year-end after 11 years with the firm and 33 years in the industry.
Higginbotham, who also serves as CEO and chair of T. Rowe Price International, as a member of the firm’s management cmmittee and its subcommittees focused on strategy, compensation, and development, will be succeeded by management committee member Dee Sawyer.
Effective 1 January 2024, Sawyer will be named the new head of global distribution, leading the teams responsible for sales, marketing, and client service globally across all distribution channelsand will assume Higginbotham’s responsibilities on the firm’s subcommittees.
Scott Keller, head of Americas, APAC, and EMEA distribution, will serve as the new CEO and chair of T. Rowe Price International, and will report to Sawyer, while continuing in his current role.
Generali Deutschland – The Italian insurance and asset management company has reshuffled its management team in Germany.
It has appointed Edoardo Malpaga as its new CFO, succeeding Milan Novotný who will take over the role of CFO at the company’s subsidiary in Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Kathrin Schwidder will become head of the Prevention and Assistance Factories department at Generali Deutschland, and managing director of Generali Engagement Solutions, and Generali Health Solutions. Volker Kreuziger takes over the role CEO of Deutsche Bausparkasse Badenia, succeeding Christof Schick, who is leaving the company at his own request.
Petrissa Gath will be the new general manager of Deutsche Bausparkasse Badenia.
AXA IM Alts – Laurent Lavergne has been appointed to the newly-created role of global head of sustainability, effective 1 October 2023.
In his new position, reporting directly to global head of AXA IM Alts, Isabelle Scemama, Lavergne will be responsible for the development and deployment of AXA IM Alts’ sustainability strategy across all AXA IM Alts’ business lines, comprising real estate, infrastructure, alternative credit and natural capital and impact investments. He will also be a voting member of the investment committee for direct investments (real estate and infrastructure equity as well as natural capital).
Lavergne will also assume the current responsibilities of Justin Travlos, global head of responsible investment which were primarily focused on real estate and infrastructure. After five years with AXA IM Alts, Travlos has decided to return home to Australia and will leave the business towards the end of 2023.
Lavergne has more than 28 years of experience of real estate investment and management and has been at AXA IM Alts since 1994, most recently as global head of asset management and development within the real estate business line.
Manulife Investment Management – The fimre has appointed Colin Purdie as its new chief investment officer, public markets. Purdie will join the firm on 1 December, succeeding Christopher Conkey, who is retiring from Manulife Investment Management at the end of 2024 after 13 years with the firm and an esteemed career spanning more than 40 years in asset management.
Conkey first joined Manulife in 2010 as the CIO, global equities. He took on leadership responsibility for global fixed income in 2013 and the multi-asset solutions team in 2015. In 2017, he was appointed as the firm’s global CIO and head of public markets, serving in this key role and helping to form the firm’s global wealth and asset management segment. His leadership across all these elements has been a key driver of the growth in assets managed by public markets.
Conkey will become a special advisor to the CEO when Purdie formally joins Manulife. He’ll then focus on the leadership transition and shift to special projects within public markets and the broader organization for the remainder of his tenure.
As CIO, public markets, Purdie will lead the investment team with responsibility for all aspects of the public markets investment processes and the investment performance of its equity, fixed income, and solutions-oriented strategies. He’ll also be accountable for the development and implementation of the firm’s investment philosophy, risk management approach, and ESG integration. Purdie will report to Paul Lorentz and will be based in London.
Purdie will join from Aviva Investors, where he’s worked for more than a decade. At Aviva, he was most recently CIO, liquid markets, where he led global teams across credit, equities, multi-asset and macro, ESG, and trading.
European Association of Paritarian Institutions (AEIP) – The association has appointed a new president and vice president for the upcoming two-year mandate, spanning from June 2023 to June 2025, following the organisation’s rotating system of presidency.
Katja Veirto, from the Finnish mutual pension insurance comapny ELO, has been nominated by the Finnish pension alliance TELA (Finland) and appointed as the new AEIP president.
In addition, Carsten Burckhardt from the trade union IG BAU and nominated by the German social funds for the construction industry SOKA-BAU, has been appointed as the new AEIP vice president by the AEIP general assembly.
AEIP recognises the “remarkable achievements” of Brigitte Pisa, who represents Agirc-Arrco and successfully completed her two-year term as AEIP president for the period 2021-2023.
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