Two of the UK’s Environment Agency Pension Fund’s top executives will take on leadership roles at the newly created combined investment company for 10 local government pension schemes (LGPS).

Dawn Turner has been appointed chief executive officer of BPP Ltd, which will oversee the investment of £27.5bn (€31bn) pension assets of the funds, and Mark Mansley has been appointed its chief investment officer (CIO).

Turner has been chief pensions officer at the Environment Agency Pension Fund (EAPF), a recognised leader in responsible investment, for four years, and has been the interim managing director for the Brunel Pension Partnership (BPP).

Mansley has worked alongside Turner as CIO at the EAPF, which he joined in 2011.

Laura Chappell has been appointed chief compliance officer and risk officer of BPP Ltd, and Joe Webster joins as chief operations officer.

Chappell was most recently head of risk for a large wealth manager in London, and has also worked in risk and compliance at Barclays Global Investors (now BlackRock) and Schroders.

Webster joins from Deutsche Bank, where he was global finance director for equity trading.

Denise Le Gal, independent chair of BPP, hailed the appointments as a “milestone” in the long term development of the partnership.

“The formation of the company and the recruitment of the key personnel marks the start of the final stage in the BPP funds’ journey to pooling assets,” Le Gal said. “We look forward to working together as one team to build a better future for our clients.”

The three non-executive directors are Steve Tyson, Frédérique Pierre-Pierre, and Mike Clark. Their appointments were announced last month.

The EAPF is one of the 10 founding members of BPP, which is one of the eight national ‘pools’ that have been created following a government push for increased investment scale and improved efficiency within the LGPS.

It said it is reviewing its future business and staff requirements as part of the fund’s transition to BPP Ltd. In the interim, Faith Ward, the EAPF’s chief responsible investment and risk officer, will lead on investment matters and Craig Martin will continue as acting chief pensions officer.

The other funds in the BPP collaboration are the pension funds for Avon, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Somerset, and Wiltshire.

BPP Ltd was formally created yesterday in Bristol when each of the founding funds signed the shareholder agreement to establish the company.

The partnership will soon announce the appointment of its selected administrator and custodian.

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