M&G, SSGA, Investment Association, Columbia Threadneedle, DWS, Tikehau Capital, Fondtorgsnämnden, UBP, Capital Cranfield, Smart, LGRI
M&G – Andrea Rossi has been named as the firm’s new chief executive officer. He has a 22-year track record across the global insurance and asset management sectors, mainly through his time at AXA Group. He held senior roles in its insurance business across Europe and internationally, and for six years he was CEO of AXA Investment Managers and a member of the group executive committee.
While at AXA IM, which Rossi led from London, assets under management increased by 55% to €800bn with external clients money under management more than doubling. This was driven by a client needs-led approach and funded significantly by improvements in systems and industrialising the operating model. He started his career at GE and was, most recently, a senior adviser to the Boston Consulting Group.
Rossi will replace John Foley, who led M&G’s split from parent Prudential in 2019, and who announced in April his intention to retire.
“Andrea brings energy, focus, ambition and importantly he has a lot of experience of growing businesses and delivering results. These are attributes that will be important for the next phase of M&G’s growth journey,” said Edward Braham, M&G’s chair.
“I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank John Foley for his outstanding contribution over his long and distinguished career at M&G and Prudential,” Braham added.
State Street Corporation – Yie-Hsin Hung has been appointed as president and CEO of State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), its asset management business. She succeeds Cyrus Taraporevala, whose planned retirement was announced earlier this year.
Hung will join SSGA in December 2022, reporting to State Street chair and CEO Ron O’Hanley and will join the group’s executive committee. She joins SSGA from New York Life Investment Management (NYLIM), where she served as CEO since 2015.
While at NYLIM, Hung led a multi-boutique, global investment management business that provides a broad range of fixed income, alternatives, equity and ESG capabilities. Before joining NYLIM, she held leadership positions at Bridgewater Associates and Morgan Stanley.
Investment Association (IA) – Three new directors have been appointed to the association’s board of directors. The board oversees the IA’s activity and plays an important role setting its key priorities, including maintaining a focus on customers, investing in growth, improving diversity and unlocking technological innovation, while also guiding the wider industry through the changing market environment.
Joining the board are:
- Kirstie MacGillivray, head of dealing and UK CEO of Aegon Asset Management;
- Nick Ring, CEO, EMEA, at Columbia Threadneedle;
- Karen Zachary, CEO of CRUX Asset Management.
The new appointees replace Keith Skeoch, Andrew Formica and Philippe d’Orgeval.
The appointments were confirmed at the IA’s annual general meeting this week, where Patrick Thomson also assumed his role as chair of the board.
Additionally, Reuben Overmark has been appointed as retail markets specialist. He’ll be working on retail markets, sustainability and product communication and disclosure at the Association. This includes SDR and SFDR implementation, the new Consumer Duty and on the Financial Conduct Authority’s consumer investments strategy – on how to widen retail participation in investment products and the future of UK investment fund disclosure and communications.
Overmark joins from the Association of British Insurers where he was senior policy adviser and long-term savings and investment platforms specialist.
Columbia Threadneedle Investments – Richard Colwell, head of UK equities at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, will retire in November 2022 having worked in London for 32 years. He has managed the £3.7bn CT UK Equity Income Fund since 2010 and has delivered an excellent performance track record for clients, with top quartile returns over five and 10 years.
The CT UK Equity Income Fund will be managed by Jeremy Smith, currently head of UK equity research and portfolio manager, with Jonathan Barber remaining as deputy manager, ensuring continuity of style and approach to the management of the portfolio.
In addition, the firm is recruiting a senior equity income portfolio manager to work on the equity income strategies, further strengthening this resource. The management of other funds currently led by Colwell will also transfer to Smith and Barber.
Smith and Catherine Stanley – who joined the firm following the acquisition of BMO GAM (EMEA) in 2021 – will succeed Colwell to become co-heads of UK equities.
Stanley currently leads a specialist equities team, which will now become part of the expanded UK equities team. She brings to the team a strong track record of managing sustainable and all cap portfolios.
DWS Group – The group has announced major changes to its investment division and its client coverage division.
The group’s chief investment office, multi-asset and solutions and the research house are brought together under the leadership of Björn Jesch, who will become the new global chief investment officer of DWS. Jesch will also remain CEO of DWS CH AG.
One of the core tasks of the merged team will be to identify tactical and strategic investment themes across all liquid and illiquid asset classes.
The group’s teams for active equity and fixed income (including cash) will be brought together in the active business unit, under the responsibility of Vincenzo Vedda who has a wealth of experience across all asset classes. Most recently, he led the European (excluding Germany and Austria) client coverage team and was responsible for DWS’ global wholesale business. Prior to that, he was global head of trading.
The systematic investment solutions unit, which has been under the responsibility of Fiona Bassett, will be combined with trading to the new systematic solution and implementation platform business unit headed by Bassett.
Additionally, Alexia Giugni takes over as head of client coverage division EMEA (excluding Germany and Austria). Giugni will retain her role as country head for Italy. She has a strong expertise in the institutional business and has been instrumental in developing this segment and increasing the success of the wholesale business.
Tikehau Capital – The global alternative asset management group has appointed Peter Westmacott as its UK chair. The appointment follows another strong year of activity for Tikehau Capital in the UK, in both capital deployment and in fundraising activities with local institutional investors and wealth managers.
Westmacott assumes the role of UK chair in addition to his current role as chair of the international advisory board of Tikehau Capital, which he has held since January 2019. He will work closely with Tikehau Capital’s head of UK and Iberia Carmen Alonso to accelerate the growth of the group’s UK business.
Swedish Fund Selection Agency(Fondtorgsnämnden) – The new government agency tasked with running Sweden’s premium pension platform has hired Martin Groth as senior quantitative analyst. Groth will start his new job on 3 October, and comes from Stockholm-based investment management firm Quartile Fonder, where he has been a fund manager.
Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) – Sergio Trigo Paz has joined as CIO and head of emerging market fixed income. Based in London, he takes the leadership of a team which now counts nine investment professionals based in Zurich, London and Hong Kong.
Until March this year, Trigo Paz was head of emerging market debt at BlackRock where he spent 10 years. Prior to joining Blackrock in 2012, he was head of emerging markets fixed income and then CIO at BNP Paribas Investment Partners. Before 2004, he held trading and market-making positions in emerging market debt with a variety of institutions in New York, London and Paris.
The emerging market fixed income team has also been joined by Soledad Rocio Acoroni in Zurich, as portfolio manager. She joins from Larrain Vial AM in Chile where she worked as portfolio manager focusing on LatAm corporate debt strategies, low-carbon ESG LatAm debt strategies and Argentinian sovereign and corporate debt strategies.
Capital Cranfield – Ramona Tipnis has been appointed as a professional trustee. She has trustee experience stretching back to 2011 and joins from Zedra Governance Limited (formerly PTL) where she has been a professional trustee since 2020.
Her diverse professional background includes five years as director of investor relations and corporate communications at Mothercare and fund management and analyst roles with well known City institutions including Gartmore and Foreign & Colonial.
Smart – The global retirement technology provider has hired Eve Read as senior director of strategic delivery. In her new role, she will lead the UK proposition team as it builds new features for the Smart Pension Master Trust as well as contributing to the development of Keystone, the company’s global platform-as-a-service offering.
Read will lead Smart Pension’s consolidation strategy, as it sees master trust schemes consolidate and individuals take greater ownership of their pension pots. She spent two decades focused on pensions at employee benefits consultant Mercer, which included setting up and running the firm’s UK defined contribution (DC) consulting business.
More recently she worked at the government DC scheme NEST, where she led on business delivery and customer engagement.
Legal & General Retirement Institutional (LGRI) – The firm’s global Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) business has announced several changes to its LGRI division leadership team.
Having led the UK PRT business for nearly six years and supported in building its market leading reputation, Chris DeMarco will take on new responsibilities and use his wide experience, in his new role leading on strategic accounts and new markets. He will focus on proactive strategy and proposition development.
John Towner has played a pivotal role in L&G’s PRT division for the past eight years and will now assume leadership of its UK PRT business. He has contributed significantly to the growth and success of the division, having previously held the role of head of new business, and brings huge experience and capability to this role.
Additionally, Dave Poulton joins the leadership team as chief customer officer. He brings in-depth knowledge and understanding of the organisation, having worked for LGRI for nearly 24 years, and brings significant expertise in both customer and client services.
Emma Byron, previously managing director of Legal & General Retirement Solutions – where she played a key part in the growth and success of L&G’s Retirement Solutions business – joins LGRI as chief operating officer for the division. She brings great expertise and insight to the role and will help LGRI continue to progress its growth ambitions, while ensuring operational excellence.
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