NAPF, Whitbread, comPlan, Sulzer, Swisscom, RobecoSAM, Redington, Morningstar, SYZ Asset Management, Schroders, Pioneer Investments, Russell Investments

UK National Association of Pension Funds – Lesley Williams, group pensions director at Whitbread, has been appointed chair of the NAPF, succeeding Ruston Smith, whose two-year tenure will end at the NAPF annual general meeting on 16 October. Williams has been a non-executive director of the NAPF since 2011 and is currently chair of its defined contribution council.

comPlan/Sulzer – Urs Schaffner will leave his position as managing director of the CHF4bn (€3.8bn) pensionskasse for the machinery maker Sulzer (SVE) to become head of the CHF9.5bn pension plan for telecommunications company Swisscom (comPlan) from October. He will replace André-Pierre Schmidt, who is leaving after five years. At SVE, the search for a replacement for Schaffner is ongoing. It has now also been confirmed that Edouard Stucki, formerly at Towers Watson Switzerland, has joined the asset management team at comPlan at the beginning of the year. 

RobecoSAM – Bas Knol has been appointed active ownership specialist in RobecoSAM’s governance and active ownership team, taking up the role on 1 June. Before this, he was at ABN AMRO Private Banking, where he was responsible for integrating environmental, social and governance factors into the investment process.

Redington – Dan Mikulskis, Pete Drewienkiewicz and Mitesh Sheth have been promoted at consultancy Redington to become managing directors of their respective business areas: asset liability management, manager research and business development and communications, respectively. Neha Bhargava and Rachel Johnson have been made directors within client consulting and operations. Redington said all of these promotions were part of its new push for business growth.

Morningstar – Dan Kemp has been appointed CIO at Morningstar’s Investment Management Group for the EMEA region. He is replacing Daniel Needham, CFA, who became president and CIO for the Morningstar Investment Management Group in January 2015. Robin Johnson, CFA, has also been hired as head of portfolio management, EMEA. Kemp joined Morningstar in 2014 as co-head of investment consulting and portfolio management for Morningstar Investment Management in the EMEA region, having previously worked at investment consultancy Albemarle Street Partners, which he co-founded. In his new role, he will report to Needham. Johnson came to Morningstar in 2007, after working at Mellon Global Investors and Bestinvest. He will report to Kemp.

SYZ Asset Management – Katia Coudray has been appointed chief executive of SYZ Asset Management and head of OYSTER Funds. She was previously at Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) in Geneva, where she was a member of the asset management executive committee. Florent Guy-Ducrot has been hired by the firm, which is a division of the SYZ Group, as head of business development, replacing Xavier Guillon. Guy-Ducrot has previously been head of sales and distribution in various asset management companies including HSBC and Crédit Agricole (now Amundi).

Schroders – Owen Scarrott is joining Schroders early next month in the newly created role of materials and energy global sector specialist. He most recently worked as an equity analyst at Morgan Stanley and had similar jobs at Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs. Scarrott will be based in London and report to Simon Webber, who is responsible for the global sector specialist team.

Pioneer Investments – Michael Dirstine has been hired by Pioneer Investments and will take on the newly created role of institutional business development officer. He will be based in Boston. Before joining the firm, Dirstine was vice-president of institutional sales at Eaton Vance.

Russell Investments – Van Luu has been appointed head of currency and fixed income strategy at Russell Investments, to be based in London. He will report to Andrew Pease, global head of investment strategy. He comes to the firm from Norges Bank Investment Management, where he was a senior analyst for investment policy and allocation strategies.

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