Warrington Borough Council, Altana Wealth, Actiam, De Nationale APF, DSM Nederland, MSIM, HSBC Global Asset Management, LGIM, Schroders, Eastspring Investments, Russell Investments

Warrington Borough Council/Altana Wealth – Omar Ghafur, the former head of private equity at LGPS Central , has been hired to manage a social impact fund for local authorities that has been launched by Warrington Borough Council and Altana Wealth. He joined the joint venture earlier this month. 

LGPS Central has been looking for a replacement for Ghafur, with applications for the position of head of private markets closing on 27 September. The pooling vehicle for nine UK local authority pension funds launched its first pooled private equity vehicle in February. 

Actiam – Hans van Houwelingen is set to leave the Dutch asset manager as of January next year, according to an announcement this week. The company said that under his leadership, assets under management had grown to €62bn, its responsible investment policy had been further strengthened, and its range of investment funds had been transformed to allow for further national and international growth.

Van Houwelingen, who has been CEO of Actiam since December 2016, said his decision to pursue other opportunities came after “months of reflection on my personal ambitions”.

De Nationale APF – Subject to approval from the regulator, Roel Knol has been appointed as a new executive board member of De Nationale APF, the general pension fund of Dutch asset manager Nationale Nederlanden Investment Partners and its administrative subsidiary AZL. He is due to start on 1 November and will primarily be responsible for asset management and relationship management.

For the past 17 years Knol worked for Robeco, where he was part of the fiduciary team. However, Robeco will stop fiduciary management for pension funds in 2020, as announced in September. Knol succeeds Henk de Bruijne, who left at the end of 2018. 

DSM Nederland – Margreet Teunissen was appointed chair of the supervisory board of pension fund DSM Nederland in September. She succeeded Wendy de Jong, who resigned in February in connection with her joining the supervisory board of the financial markets authority.

Teunissen is chairman of the public libraries pension fund and non-executive chair of De Nationale APF. She is also a member of the supervisory board of IrisZorg, an organisation for addiction care and relief.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) – Seema Hingorani has been appointed managing director at MSIM, with responsiblity for leading efforts with respect to diversity, talent development and client relationships. She is due to design a new training and development programme for junior investing talent across the entire investment platform, and will also be a senior relationship manager for many of MSIM’s largest and most important institutional clients.

Hingorani is the founder of Girls Who Invest, a non-profit organisation that brings more women into investing and portfolio management roles. Before that she was chief investment officer for the New York City Retirement System. 

HSBC Global Asset Management – John Ware has been hired as senior product specialist for hedge funds in the asset manager’s alternatives team, responsible for its established hedge fund product offering and expanding the platform to a larger institutional investor base globally. He joined HSBC from BlackRock, where he was a senior product specialist for BlackRock Alternative Advisors, the firm’s hedge fund solutions platform. 

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) – Margaret Ammon will be the UK asset manager’s chief risk officer from February 2020, subject to regulatory approvals. She is currently chief risk officer for asset management at M&G. 

Ammon was chief risk officer for Colonial First State Global Asset Management from 2015 to 2017, and head of risk for the APAC region for Schroders before that. 

Michelle Scrimgeour, LGIM CEO, said: “Margaret brings more than 20 years’ experience in risk management, having held senior roles at a number of high profile asset management companies.  Her proven track record in building global risk oversight models, coupled with a strong understanding of practical application within differing asset classes and markets, will be an invaluable addition to our business.”

Schroders – The listed asset manager has hired Michael Leonard from LV= as a solutions manager for its Portfolio Solutions (PS) group. The role is new, and has a specific focus on buy & maintain credit portfolios that meet the matching adjustment requirements of insurers.

At LV= Leonard was most recently head of investment, overseeing strategic asset allocation and balance sheet hedging, as well as derivative design and execution. He has also worked at Societe Generale Securities Services, Credit Suisse and Aegon UK.

Schroders also said that Vivien Konrad has transferred from Schroders’ Zurich office, where she was a treasury and foreign exchange trader, to join the PS team also as a solutions manager in another newly-created role.

Meanwhile, Gidon Aarons has joined the PS team as a defined contribution (DC) and retirement analyst. He joins from consultant Lane Clark & Peacock , where he was most recently associate DC investment consultant.

Schroders said the additions to the Portfolio Solutions (PS) group were in response to growing client demand. 

Eastspring Investments – The $216bn Asian investment management arm of UK insurer Prudential has appointed Dirk Toedte as a director in its European fund distribution team. Based in Luxembourg, he will be responsible for sales and marketing in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg and the Nordic region.

He joins Eastspring from Alma Capital Investment Management , where he focused on institutional business development in Germany and Austria. Before that he held sales roles at Allianz Global Investors and Société Générale.

Russell Investments – Bettina May has been named head of distribution with responsibility for driving the business strategy in Germany and Austria, focussing on expanding the business’ network and distribution with wholesale clients. She joins Russell Investments from Amundi, where she spent the last 12 years and was most recently senior client relationship manager with responsibilty for the expansion of the ETF, indexing and smart beta businesses. 

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