Towers Watson, SCA, MN, Vanguard, AXA Investment Managers, State Street Global Markets, Mandatum Life

Towers WatsonFrans van der Horst has been appointed as a senior consultant at the consultancy. In his new job, he will focus on improving and extending client relations. Van der Horst has been senior manager global pensions, corporate clients and asset management at insurer Aegon.

SCACarolien Quint has been appointed secretary to the board of the €400m pension fund for the hygiene products firm. She succeeds Ronald van Eldijk, who has stepped down as of 1 April. SCA was one of the three multi-company schemes in the Netherlands before it decided to split into two independent pension funds, after the employer of one of the schemes in was bought by British company DS Smith.

MNRené van de Kieft has been appointed as the new executive chairman of the Dutch pensions manager, replacing Ruud Hagendijk who steps down after ten years. Van de Kieft, who will assume his new role 1 May, is currently board member of the €344bn civil service scheme ABP and the €40bn metal scheme PME as well as chairman of the €8bn postal scheme PostNL. Previously, he was CFO and COO of the €188bn asset manager PGGM and CFO at the parking company Q-Park.

VanguardRobyn Laidlaw has been appointed as head of institutional business in Europe for the US asset manager. She moves over from its Australian business where she was head of product and marketing. Laidlaw fills a position left after the untimely passing of Simon Vanstone.

AXA Investment ManagersDani Saurymper and is set to join the French investment manager’s healthcare investment team. Saurymper will manage the Axa Framlington Health Fund and the Axa WF Framlington Health. He joins from Barclays Capital where he was an equity research team for European healthcare. He also spent time at Nomura and Goldman Sachs in pharmaceuticals research.

State Street Global Markets – Alex Lawton has joined as a senior managing director and head of securities finance in State Street’s global markets division in EMEA. Lawton joins State Street from Barclays where he was head of equity finance and prime services. He will be responsible for developing the securities finance business across EMEA.

Mandatum LifePeter Lindgren has been appointed as head of international sales for wealth management at the Finnish insurer and wealth manager, focusing on the Nordic region. Lindgren joins from Amundi Asset Management here he was general manager for the Nordics. He has previous experience at Credit Suisse and PIMCO.