GLOBAL - BlackRock, Syntrus Achmea, Mercer Austria, Hymans Robertson, Communicators, SSgA, Schroders, SWIP

BlackRock - Mark Taborsky will join as a managing director and senior portfolio manager within BlackRock’s Multi-Asset Client Solutions (BMACS) group. He will have direct oversight of client assets within the BMACS US fiduciary management business. Most recently, he served as executive vice-president at PIMCO. Separately, Ingo Heinen has joined as managing director at BlackRock Alternative Investors. Heinen managed institutional equity derivatives and fund-linked sales for Germany and Austria at Royal Bank of Scotland. Before then, he spent more than 10 years at Merrill Lynch and Nomura.

Syntrus Achmea - Martijn van Kilsdonk has been appointed senior portfolio manager as of 1 September. Van Kilsdonk left bank Theodoor Gilissen, where he was a portfolio manager responsible for process and product development for multi-manager and multi-strategy portfolios. Separately, Wim Barentsen was appointed as chief strategist. He will be responsible for the asset manager’s economic view. Barentsen held a similar role at pension fund ABP and its asset manager APG.

Mercer - Jamie Willis has joined as a partner in the retirement practice working for clients across London and the UK South East. He was previously a partner in the pension team at Deloitte. The consultancy has also hired Neil Puxley as a partner in its retirement, risk and finance business. Before joining Mercer, Puxley was a principal at Aon Hewitt and a partner at Watson Wyatt, where he was responsible for its Scottish actuarial team.

Mercer Austria - Gerald Moritz, head of retirement and a board member at Towers Watson Austria, is leaving on 1 October to join the managing board of competitor Mercer Austria. According to Mercer, Moritz’s hire “completes” the managing board, consisting of Josef Papousek and Michaela Plank. Moritz will be joint managing director alongside Papousek. At Towers Watson Austria, Eva Salomon-Girsch will take over Moritz’s position. The lawyer has been working in the occupational retirement department since 2000.

Hymans Robertson - Vijay Krishnaswamy has been appointed head of the consultancy’s enterprise risk management (ERM) practice. He joins from the Financial Services Authority and will lead the establishment of the company’s new ERM practice. Prior to joining the FSA, Krishnaswamy held front office, strategy, risk and capital management positions at several organisations including Standard Chartered Bank and KPMG.
 
Communicators - Daniel Dubach has joined the Switzerland-based firm as a senior consultant. In his new role, he will expand Communicators’ pension fund business and provide communication support to insurance and pension fund clients. He will assume his duties on 1 October. Dubach is a former board member at Avadis Vorsorge, where he managed investment products and services.

State Street Global Advisors (SSgA) - The US-based asset manager has made two senior additions to its fundamental equity team in Ireland. Jeremy James joins as senior research analyst, covering global financials, from Pioneer Investments. Mark Prentice, formerly of Goldman Sachs Asset Management in London, has been appointed senior research analyst, focusing on financial statement analysis and corporate engagement.

Schroders - Matthias Scheiber has joined the company’s multi-asset investment team as a fund manager. Starting on 8 September, Scheiber will join a team of more than 60 multi-asset investment professionals and report to the head of multi-asset investments, Johanna Kyrklund. He joins from Aethra Asset Management, where he was a fund manager and partner.

Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) - Bindesh Savjani has been appointed as director of risk, based in Edinburgh and reporting to Dean Buckley, managing director. He joins from Aviva Investors, where he worked for 10 years, most recently as global chief risk officer. Before then, he spent four years at Ernst & Young, working as a senior consultant within the risk management practice.

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