CometaMaurizio Agazzi, the general director of the largest Italian supplementary pension fund, which has over €13bn of assets under management, has left the scheme, IPE has learned.

Federico Spiniello, general director of Fondo Previdenza Cooperativa, the pension fund for employees in the cooperative enterprises sector is the new general director at Cometa.

Agazzi has served at Cometa since its inception in 1997.


Evenlode Investment – The employee-owned Oxfordshire-based investment manager has appointed Rob Harris as a non-executive director. He becomes Evenlode’s second independent non-executive director, following Findlay Park co-founder Charles Park’s appointment to the board in June 2020. The appointment reflects Evenlode’s ongoing strategy of building its team, systems and governance framework, with the aim of delivering a high-quality, consistent investment service to clients over the long term.

Prior to joining Evenlode, Harris was chief executive officer and co-founder of Majedie Asset Management. Integral to its growth, he led the 2022 sale to Liontrust, where he later became head of global institutional business. In his role at Evenlode, effective from 1 May 2023, Harris will draw on his experience of building a UK-based global equities boutique through various business and economic cycles.

As well as providing strategic and governance insights, Harris will provide mentorship to both the management and investment teams at Evenlode. The Evenlode team will benefit from Harris’s broad experience across investment management, operations, risk and compliance, and the building of institutional relationships.


Isio – The UK-based pensions consultancy has welcomed two new senior hires in Scotland to support the growth of its trustee actuarial services and public service consulting teams as the firm continues to expand its offering across its Glasgow and Edinburgh offices.

Glasgow-based Kenneth Wilson joins the senior management team as principal; he is a scheme actuary. With 20 years of pensions experience, he previously worked at Aon where he was responsible for delivering actuarial, secretarial and governance services to some of the firm’s largest Scottish trustee clients.

Colin Dobbie also joins as a senior consultant from Barnett Waddingham where he worked as an actuary for LGPS funds, Police & Fire Authorities and Funeral Plan Trusts.

The appointments follow an exciting start to the year for Isio, which recently announced growth in both revenue and profits. Its core actuarial and consulting and pensions administration service lines grew organically by 10%, while its service lines extending beyond pensions grew organically by 21%.


FolksamLars Johnsson is leaving his job as head of real estate at Sweden’s Folksam at the end of September as the pensions and insurance group prepares to change its property strategy.

The firm said Johnsson had been hired in 2015 with the goal of increasing property exposure at the group, and that under his leadership the portfolio had increased to SEK62bn (€5.5bn) from SEK19bn – an allocation rise from 5.7% to 11%.

Folksam said it had already started the process of recruiting a replacement for Johnsson.

Marcus Blomberg, Folksam’s chief investment officer, said the firm had now reached its target property allocation. “The focus of the real estate business will therefore gradually shift from profitable expansion to value-creating management, which will affect the work of the recruitment of Lars’s successor,” Blomberg said.


IlmarinenMira Kauppi has been appointed as head of finance and risk management at the Finnish pensions insurance company, and Kaisa Ala-Laurila as its head of communications and corporate responsibility.

Ala-Laurila has worked as managing director of private equity firm Storskogen Suomi, according to her LinkedIn profile, while Kauppi has worked at Ilmarinen for more than three years, most recently as director of service concepts and data utilisation.

Both appointments were made at Ilmarinen’s board meeting on 28 April.


Mercer Deutschland – The consultancy has appointed Martin Haep as a new CEO. Haep was previously a multinational client segment leader for Mercer in Europe, and head of wealth (retirement and investment) at Mercer in Germany. He will continue to fill this role until further notice.

In March, Achim Lüder took over the newly-created role of CEO for Germany, North, Central and Eastern Europe.


Shehzad Ahmad at Dalriada Trustees

Shehzad Ahmad at Dalriada

Dalriada TrusteesShehzad Ahmad has been appointed as a senior professional trustee at the firm.

Ahmad joins Dalriada from Ross Trustees, a professional trustee and pension services firm, where he was a trustee director and was responsible for managing schemes ranging from £1m to more than £3bn in size.

During his time at Ross Trustees, Ahmad also worked as head of professional corporate sole trusteeship and risk transfer. In this role, he was instrumental in implementing the Association of Professional Pension Trustees’ (APPT) Code of Practice, which he co-authored.

He brings nearly 20 years of experience as a trustee to his new role. He is fully accredited by the APPT and is an associate member of the Pensions Management Institute. He has also worked at the Pension Protection Fund, managing its legal panel.

Ahmad has a broad range of pensions industry experience, which includes journey planning and leading restructures, and he has also worked on cases with regulatory oversight, including those with in-depth and complex funding negotiations.


MSCI Inc.Ashley Lester has joined the firm as global head of research and as a member of MSCI’s executive committee. Based in London, Lester will report to Baer Pettit, the firm’s president.

In this role, Lester will be responsible for the development of MSCI’s research across the firm’s product lines and client segments of asset managers, asset owners, banks, corporates, hedge funds, insurance companies, and wealth managers. He will partner closely with MSCI’s product, client coverage, technology, and marketing teams to ensure the continued development of innovative research, analysis, and solutions to help investors navigate a rapidly transforming investment landscape.

Lester joins MSCI with more than a decade of extensive experience in business leadership, investment management, and multi-asset-class investment research. Previously, he spent eight years at Schroders in London, most recently as the founding head of systematic investments, in which he led a team managing over $20bn in equity factor and ESG strategies. He had previously served in Schroders’ multi-asset investment group as head of multi-asset research, leading research into portfolio construction, asset allocation modelling, and capital market assumptions.


Muzinich & Co. – The firm has hired Akihiro Hayashi as country head for Japan and Tokio Morita as senior adviser as Muzinich & Co. continues to expand its ability to provide customised public and private market credit solutions to a broader client base.

Hayashi joins from Barings Japan where he spent eight years as a member of institutional sales. He has more than 25 years of industry experience with a strong focus on servicing, planning and business development for pension funds (corporate and public) and financial institutions.

Morita has spent more than 36 years at the Ministry of Finance and the Japanese Financial Services Agency in a variety of roles, most recently as vice-minister for international affairs, Financial Services Agency. He was also a member of the Basel Committee and at IOSCO, served as the chair of the Asia and Pacific Regional Committee, and co-chair of the Follow-Up Group to the 2015 Cross-Border Regulation Task Force.


HemsöKerstin Hessius, the former CEO of Swedish pensions buffer fund AP3, has been appointed as the new chair of the board of Hemsö – a real estate firm that owns property for public use in Sweden. AP3 owns 85% of Hemsö.

Hessius replaces Pär Nuder, who has been Hemsö’s chair since 2013.

The decision was made at the real estate firm’s annual general meeting on April 27, at which Staffan Hansén, the CEO of AP3, was also elected as new member of the Hemsö board.

The latest digital edition of IPE’s magazine is now available