Investment Association, Keva, BlackRock, Robeco, SEI, Deloitte, Redington, SEI Investments, AZL, Petercam, Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management, Barclays Global Investments Solutions, Société Générale, bfinance, Mercer, Hymans Robertson, Eurizon Capital

Investment Association – Daniel Godfrey, chief executive of the UK asset management association, has stepped down following reports that M&G and Schroders were to let their membership lapse. Godfrey, who has been chief executive since December 2012, will step down with immediate effect. Current director of risk, compliance and legal Guy Sears will take over as interim chief executive until a permanent replacement is found.

Keva – Jukka Männistö, the new chief executive of Finnish local government and church pension fund Keva has resigned suddenly due to a “crisis of confidence” between him and the management board, the fund announced. Keva, which has €41.5bn in investment assets, manages pensions for employees of the local government, the state, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and benefits agency Kela. Keva said Männistö handed in his letter of resignation to the board of directors on 30 September.

BlackRock – Monique Donders has been appointed head of institutional client business for the Benelux region. She joins from Robeco, where she has served as chief risk officer for the last 13 years. From 2000 to 2009, she was a professor of financial management at the University of Maastricht. Before then, she held a number of roles at MeesPierson/Fortis, the Institute for Research and Investment Services and Erasmus University. Until recently, she was a member of the supervisory boards at PFZW and APG Treasury Centre.

SEI – Cai Rees has been appointed director of the institutional advice team for the EMEA region. He joins from Deloitte, where he was head of investment strategy. Before then, he spent two years at the Universities Superannuation Scheme, where he was an asset liability specialist and deputy head of investment risk. He has also held investment research and consulting positions at BlackRock and Mercer Investment Consulting.

Redington – Nick Samuels has been appointed to lead equity-manager research. He joins from SEI Investments, where he led UK, European and global equity-manager research. He was also a member of its global manager research committee. Samuels began his investment career in 2000 at Schroders, where he worked on the Asia and emerging market equity teams, before moving into manager research roles at Stamford Associates, Momentum Global Investment Management and Dart Capital.

AZL – Marcel Verheul has been appointed to the executive board at pensions provider AZL, a subsidiary of NN Investment Partners. As director of client relations, he will be responsible for service provision and client acquisition. He will also be responsible for the new ‘general pension fund’, or APF, that AZL is setting up with its parent company.

Petercam – Francis Heymans, a partner, has decided to leave the Belgian asset manager following the merger of Petercam and Bank Degroof. Heymans has been working at Petercam for 22 years – in New York from 1991 to 1995 and subsequently in Belgium. He has been a board member at Petercam SA, Petercam L Fund, Petercam Horizon L Fund and Petercam Multifund B, as well as head of international business development.

Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management – Deutsche AWM has added two equity market investment specialists to its UK active asset management business with the appointment of Hilary Aldridge and Alex Sloane. Aldridge joins from Barclays Global Investments Solutions, where she was most recently a fund-of-funds manager. Sloane was an equities analyst specialising in food producers at Société Générale in London.

bfinance – The investment consultancy has made two appointments to its investment advisory and research teams. Geraint Morgan joins as director of portfolio monitoring, while Gwenaëlle Rose joins as an analyst in public markets research. Morgan was previously co-head of quantitative research at Skandia Investment Group and most recently held analyst positions at Old Mutual Global Investors and Friends Life. Gwenaëlle joins from CRRC, the Chinese state-owned China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation, where she was an investment manager.

Mercer – Terri Lucas has been appointed UK client growth leader, overseeing client management and sales. She joins from Hymans Robertson, where she has held various roles since 2006. Her last role saw her responsible for advising the partners on strategy and customer insights.

Eurizon Capital – Gabriele Miodini has been appointed head of sales and client management. Miodini was previously head of institutional business at ERSEL Asset Management.

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