GLOBAL - Marks & Spencer, Mercer, Muse Advisory, Capita Hartshead, Investment Solutions, Lyxor Asset Management, RBC Dexia Investor Services, BlackRock, VAIÖ

Marks & Spencer - Graham Oakley has agreed to join the M&S Pension Board of Trust as chairman-designate, taking up his position on 1 April 2011. To ensure a smooth transition, Tony Watson will continue as chairman until that time, and then retire from the board. Sir Stuart Rose, M&S chairman, praised Oakley's experience of the trustee board and the complex issues relating to investment, funding and legislation.

Mercer - Andrew Horner and Tim Birkett have joined Mercer's UK covenant consulting team as senior associates. The chartered accountants will be responsible for advising pension scheme trustees on the strengths and weaknesses of their sponsoring employers and their ability to fund their defined benefit schemes. Horner joins from Baker Tilly, where he worked for 12 years, while Birkett joins from Vertex, a business process outsourcer and previously a division of United Utilities.

Muse Advisory - Rosanne Corbett has joined the pensions governance and administration consultancy as a senior associate. Corbett joins from Mercer, where she worked for more than 10 years, specialising in UK pensions governance and global benefits governance for multinationals. She has also worked with the Pensions Regulator in developing governance and monitoring capabilities, and the OECD in redrafting guidelines for pensions funds.

Capita Hartshead - Phil Daniels has joined the pensions consulting team at Capita Hartshead Actuarial and Consultancy Services. He will manage the company's retail team in London and be responsible for advising companies on contract-based pension arrangements. Daniels boasts more than 25 years of corporate pensions and business development experience, having worked for a number of financial services companies including Towry Law and RSM Bentley Jennison/Tenon.

Investment Solutions - Umar Ilyas has joined Investment Solutions as head of consultancy relations and investment actuary. He joins from Bluefin, where he was a senior investment consultant. Ilyas boasts more than 14 years' experience of advising UK pension schemes, including roles at HSBC Actuaries & Consultants, Buck Consulting and Watson Wyatt.

Lyxor Asset Management - Societe Generale's wholly owned subsidiary has strengthened its UK team with the appointment of Andrew Walsh as director of UK institutional sales. Walsh previously worked in equity cash sales at Societe Generale for five years, and before then worked at HSBC in London and New York for 10 years. At Lyxor, he will liaise with a range of institutional clients in the UK and Ireland, reporting to Claus Hein, head of Lyxor ETFs UK & Nordics.

RBC Dexia Investor Services - Cristiano Moruzzo has joined the company as a relationship management director in Italy. He will be responsible for developing and strengthening existing relationships with asset managers, pension funds, insurance companies and financial institutions. Before joining RBC Dexia, Moruzzo was head of operations and relationship management at Merrill Lynch Wealth management in Milan. Before then, he was chief operating officer at Antonveneta ABN Amro.

BlackRock - BlackRock's iShares ETF business has created the Global iShares Investment Strategy Group and appointed Russ Koesterich as global chief investment strategist to lead the team. Koesterich will assume his new role in addition to his duties as head of the investment strategy team within BlackRock's Scientific Active Equity Group. He has been in the Scientific Active Equity Group since 2005, where his responsibilities have ranged from portfolio management to product strategy.

Vereinigung Ausländischer Investmentfondsgesellschaften in Österreich (VAIÖ) - Adam Lessing, who was appointed chief executive of Fidelity's Austrian division in July, has been named a board member for the country's foreign investment fund organisation VAIÖ. In this new role, Lessing will be in charge of all matters related to retirement provision. He was previously head of business development for Europe at Aviva Investors and has also worked at AXA Investment Managers and Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
 

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