BlackRock, ABP, PME, Willis Towers Watson, Achmea, AP Pension, Mercer, AXA, ABP, Ontario Teachers, UK Pension Protection Fund, Aviva Investors, Deutsche Bank AM, Julius Baer, Kempen, Martin Currie, BNY Mellon Investment Management, Sprenkels & Verschuren, UBS AM, State Street Global Advisors Ireland

BlackRock – Charles Prideaux has been named head of active management for the EMEA region at the asset manager as part of a restructuring that also saw the creation of a real asset group. Prideaux was previously head of institutional client business for the EMEA. He will be succeeded by Justin Arter, currently BlackRock’s country head for Australia.

ABP – Rob Verjans has been appointed director of business management at the €345bn Dutch civil service pension fund. He joins Nicole Beuken, who has become general director, as well as chair of the executive board. Verjans has been general counsel and compliance officer at ABP since 2014. Prior to this, he was general counsel at the pension fund of steelworks, Hoogovens, as well as a financial lawyer at law firms BLIX, Simmons & Simmons and Van Doorne.

PME – Ronald Sijsenaar has started as temporary risk manager at the €39bn metal scheme PME. Sijsenaar is also member of the supervisory board of the pension fund for insulation company Rockwool, as well as temporary head of investment risk and control at SPF Beheer, the provider and asset manager for the railways pension fund SPF. Sijsenaar has been owner of RS Risk & Management Solutions since 2013.

Willis Towers Watson – Bibi de Vries has been named senior consultant, business development, based at the consultancy’s Amstelveen office in the Netherlands. De Vries joins from Achmea, where she has held several client relations-facing management positions over the last nine years. She continues to be a member of the advisory board of the Dutch Actuarial Society. Until 2006, De Vries was an MP for the liberal party VVD, focusing on pensions, labour disability and unemployment.

AP Pension – Peter Olsson, previously head of the Danish pension fund’s property investment team, has been promoted to managing director of AP Ejendomme, the fund’s wholly owned property subsidiary. He joined AP Pension in 2001.

Mercer – Martyn Phillips has joined the consultancy as a partner in Mercer’s UK bulk pensions insurance advisory group. Phillips joined late last year after more than three years as head of buyouts at JLT Pension Capital Strategies. Prior to joining JLT in 2012, Phillips worked at LCP and has held positions at consultancies Aon and Towers Perrin, also spending nearly five years at Prudential. In other news, Jeroen Wilbrink has left Mercer Benelux after three years as head of investment solutions, and has started his own consultancy, Attollo Investment Advisors, which focuses on alternative investments. Previously, Wilbrink was head of European business at Secor Asset Management; director of investments, European LDI and fiduciary at BMO Global Asset Management; and director at Citigroup. Wilbrink has also worked at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase.

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan – Bjarne Graven Larsen has joined the Canadian pension fund as executive vice-president and CIO. Graven Larsen, who spent more than a decade as CIO at Denmark’s ATP, was most recently CFO of Novo Group’s holding company Novo A/S.

UK Pension Protection Fund – Rosemary Hilary and Kate Jones join the UK lifeboat fund’s board as non-executives. Hilary is chief audit officer at retail bank TSB and has worked at both the Financial Services Authority and its successor the Financial Conduct Authority. Jones, who will join in February, began her career at M&G and has also worked at BlackRock, Schroders and Barclays Global Investors.

AXA – Laurence Boone has been named chief economist at AXA Group and head of research at AXA Investment Managers, also joining the asset manager’s executive committee. Boone currently advises French president François Hollande on European economic and financial affairs and will join AXA in March. She has previously worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research and Barclays Capital. She replaces Eric Chaney, who is set to retire in September.

Aviva Investors – John Dewey joins in February as head of investment strategy and global investment solutions. The new role sees him join Aviva from BlackRock, where he worked in LDI, private assets and market insight.

Deutsche Bank Asset Management – Amanda Rabello joins as head of passive distribution for the UK, Ireland and Channel Islands. She joins from BlackRock, where she worked within its iShares business as a derivatives specialist. Rabello has also worked at HSBC in its global markets division.

Julius Baer – Swiss bank Julius Baer has extended its Dutch team with the appointment of Marcel Engelbertink, Martijn Schoonhoven and Jolijn Veldman as relationship managers, with Engelbertink and Schoonhoven operating as commercial director and deputy commercial director for the Netherlands, respectively. All three join from Deutsche Bank’s asset and wealth management business.

Kempen – Menno Huson has been named manager of corporate strategy and business development. Huson has more than 20 years of experience in business development and strategy in the financial sector, following positions at insurer Achmea and consultancy Roland Berger. 

Martin Currie – Andreas Wallendahl has joined as head of Nordic business development. Based in London, he joins from BNY Mellon Investment Management, where he was managing director and head of the Nordic region.

Sprenkels & Verschuren – Caroline Bosch, Daan Kleinloog and Bertkan Kobus have been promoted to partners at the consultancy. Bosch is to focus on extending the investment consultancy and has been with the company since 2009, following a career at ABN Amro in London. Kleinloog, who started at S&V in 2011, will concentrate on extending the practice for pension advice. Previously, Kleinloog worked at consultancy Towers Watson. Kobus is to focus on the investment consultancy business. He has been with S&V since 2009.

UBS Asset Management – Michael McCabe has been named UK head of consultant relations. McCabe most recently worked for State Street Global Advisors Ireland, leaving the role to study in 2011. He has worked as governance manager for group pensions at Bank of Ireland and spent 12 years in various roles at the bank’s asset management division.

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