GLOBAL - Varma, ATP, Profond, Nobel Foundation, SPP Fonder, Threadneedle, Neuberger Berman, Finisterre Capital

Varma - Tiina Kurki has been appointed as senior vice-president of IT and CIO. She will come to the Finnish pension-insurer from Nordea, where she had been business chief information officer. Kurki will replace Irmeli Otava-Keskinen, acting senior vice-president of IT. Otava-Keskinen will retire towards the end of 2012, having spent her whole career at Varma and its preceding companies in various management and expert positions. Separately, Ville-Veikko Laukkanen has been appointed as Varma's senior vice-president of client services, replacing Hannu Tarvonen, who is retiring at the end of the year. Laukkanen also comes from Nordea, where he has been head of household customers and group marketing in Finland. Both Kurki and Laukkanen will start at Varma on 1 September.

ATP - Tomas Frydenberg has been appointed to the management board of the Danish pension fund, taking on responsibility for business development. His responsibilities include pension and client relationships in Denmark and abroad, business strategy and analysis, communication and tasks across the whole organisation, such as legal, compliance, risk management and CSR. Frydenberg will take up the post on 1 July. He came to ATP in September 2011 as head lawyer, having previously been commercial legal director at the ministry for economy and business affairs.

Profond - Olaf Meyer, professor at the Swiss university of Freiburg, has succeeded Herbert Brändli as chairman of the board at the Swiss collective pension scheme Profond. Brändli had to step down from this position, as the newly implemented structural reform of the Swiss second pillar includes corporate governance rules prohibiting a shareholder in the managing company of a pension scheme to sit on the board. Already last year, Brändli ceased all his operative work at B+B Holding, which manages Profond and other pension schemes. In his position as managing director, he was succeeded by Franz Zwyssig.

Nobel Foundation - Gustav Karner, former CFO and head of asset management at Länsförsäkringar, has been appointed head of asset management at the Nobel Foundation. Karner left Länsförsäkringar in February 2011 and is set to join the Nobel Foundation on 1 July, replacing John Vivstam.

SPP Fonder - The fund arm of SPP, the Swedish pension and insurance provider owned by Norway's Storebrand, has appointed Tina Nylund as head of product and business development. She joins from rival AMF Fonder, where she worked in an administrative managerial position. Before joining AMF, Nylund worked as head of the fund and finance division at the Swedish Pension Agency.

Threadneedle - Moira Gorman has been appointed client relationship director, with responsibility for developing relationships with Local Government Pension Schemes in the UK. Before joining Threadneedle, she was a senior relationship manager at State Street Global Advisers. Before then, she was a relationship manager at Morley Fund Management.

Neuberger Berman - Rob Swan has been appointed senior vice-president and head of international marketing. He will oversee marketing programmes and initiatives throughout Europe and Asia. He joins from Skandia Investment Group, where he was head of global marketing. Before then, he worked at Henderson Global Investors and Close Finsbury Asset Management.
 
Finisterre Capital - The long/short emerging market specialist has appointed Darren Walker, formerly managing director at JPMorgan Chase, as portfolio manager on the Finisterre Global Opportunity fund. Before joining JPMorgan Chase in 2010, Walker was a managing director at Credit Suisse.

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