People moves: Aon Germany chief actuary Thurnes to leave

Aon Hewitt, LPFA, Aviva Investors, ASR, Artemis, GAM, Lombard Odier Investment Managers, SAREF, Gommers & Partners, Keylane

Aon – Georg Thurnes, chief actuary at consultancy Aon Hewitt in Germany and chair of German pension fund association aba, will be leaving Aon at the end of August after 30 years at the firm. He confirmed to IPE that he would be working independently as a consultant and actuary.

Thurnes has been a very influential figure in the German pension industry. Aon said he was instrumental in adapting international valuation standards to the German occupational pensions market, and is also associated with now standard elements of practice such as asset-liability modelling.

The consultancy said Thurnes had indicated he would continue to work with the firm and that it hoped he would stay on as head of aba for another three years.

“More importantly we are grateful we could count on an individual like Georg Thurnes for 30 years,” said Fred Marchlewski, CEO for Aon Hewitt in Germany. ”We benefitted not only from his extraordinaary technical expertise but from his personal attributes.”

London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA) – Peter Ballard has joined the £6.1bn (€7.3bn) local government pension scheme as director of risk and funding, responsible for overseeing all aspects of the fund’s funding policy, investment strategy, and employer covenant assessment. He joins LPFA from Willis Towers Watson, where he was a director and advised private sector defined benefit pensions schemes of between £200m - £30bn in assets.

He is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and is a member of the institute’s working party on social impact investing. His appointment to LPFA comes shortly after John Preston was named the pension fund’s new chair.  

Aviva Investors – Iain Forrester has been appointed to the newly-created position of global head of buy-and-maintain credit and Cyril Martin to the newly-created position of head of investment solutions strategy and design.

Forrester joined Aviva Investors in August 2017, and most recently held the role of head of insurance and pensions solutions. Martin joined the asset manager in July 2017 and most recently held the role of investment solutions design. Aviva has also bolstered its buy-and-maintain team with the appointments of Sid Bhattacharyya as senior portfolio manager and Craig Adam as assistant portfolio Manager, and is looking to appoint two additional portfolio managers in London and Chicago.

Colin Purdie, CIO, credit at Aviva Investors, said buy-and-maintain credit was a core asset class for insurance companies, and pension funds were increasing their allocations to similar, cashflow-matching strategies.

ASR – The supervisory board of Dutch insurer ASR has appointed Annemiek van Melick as chief financial officer and member of the executive board for a three-year term. She succeeds Chris Figee, who had joined telecoms firm KPN as of 1 February. ASR’s executive board also comprises Jos Baeten (chairman) and Ingrid de Swart.

Artemis Investment Management – The former head of investments at GAM, Matthew Beesley, will become CIO of Artemis from 20 April, it has been announced. He will replace Peter Saacke, who Artemis said has decided to concentrate on managing money. Beesley’s decision to leave GAM was announced in November, when the Swiss investor said his role would not be replaced because of his successful work restructuring the investment team.

Lombard Odier Investment Managers – Pascal Vernaeve has been appointed to the newly created role of head of sales for northern Europe, based in Amsterdam. He joined from BrightSphere Investment Group, formerly OMAM, and has also previously managed institutional clients for the Benelux region at Man Group in London.

SAREF – Syntrus Achmea Real Estate & Finance has appointed Bruno Oudega as director for residential mortgages. He is to succeed George Dröge, who stepped down from SAREF’s executive board on 1 September. Oudega joins from mortgage service provider Quion, which implements Achmea Bank’s mortgage administration. Prior to this, he was in management positions at ABN Amro Hypothekengroep and Bouwfonds Hypotheken.

Gommers & Partners – Michael van Slagmaat has been sworn in as lawyer at Dutch pension law firm Gommers & Partners, where he started as a legal co-worker last year. He completed his studies with Hans van Meerten, professor of European pension law at Utrecht University, with a thesis on the options for the Dutch low-cost defined contribution vehicle PPI to offer the pan-European personal pensions product (PEPP).

Keylane – Christoffel van Riet has started as executive director at the software firm, tasked with providing software solutions to clients in the pensions and insurance sector. Van Riet succeeded Edzko Smid who is to fully focus on business development. Van Riet joined from Klaverblad Verzekeringen. Prior employers include ING, NN and PwC.