Folksam, AP4, DNB, Bread Street, AFII, LOIM, Capital Cranfield, Säkra, AXA IM, AAE, Robeco, Aon
Folksam/AP4 – Marcus Blomberg has been appointed by Swedish pensions and insurance group Folksam as its chief investment officer, which the firm said was a newly-created position.
Folksam said Blomberg was joining from his most recent role as head of strategic allocation and quantitative analysis at AP4. Blomberg also previously worked for Sweden’s third largest pension provider AMF in various roles including deputy CIO, head asset management and head of infrastructure and real estate.
Folksam said he had already started his new role.
DNB – Norwegian financial services group DNB told IPE it has appointed Anette Hjertø as CIO of DNB Livsforsikring, its life insurance division. She is replacing Truls Tollefsen, who had started work in the newly-created role of head of wealth management investment office.
Hjertø previously worked for the firm as head of absolute return investments, having also previously worked for KLP as a portfolio manager and member of the Norwegian municipal pension fund’s board of directors. DNB said Hjertø started work in the new role on 1 October.
Hjertø’s co-portfolio managers Kim Stefan Anderson and Lena Öberg are in the process of hiring a new portfolio manager to work with them on DNB Asset Management‘s absolute return and multi asset funds/mandates, a DNB spokesman said. “There is no change in DNBs commitment to DNB Fund - Multi Asset,” he added.
Bread Street Capital Partners – Alexander Henderson has joined as head of strategic partnerships. He will lead the development of Bread Street Capital Partners’ strategic partnerships with all financial institutions including asset and wealth managers. He will also join the company’s executive committee, working with managing partners Alex Barr and James Witter, and chief operating officer Abigail Sater.
Henderson joins after a 34-year career at Janus Henderson Investors where he was most recently managing director, global financial institutions, responsible for all of the firm’s business with EMEA based global wealth management institutions. Prior to this, over a 23-year period based in Asia, he was instrumental in establishing and creating Janus’ asset management business across the Asia region.
Capital Cranfield – Amanda Hamilton-Stanley has joined the firm’s team of professional trustees from Pernod Ricard, where her most recent role was group general counsel and compliance officer. She also served for a decade as a trustee director of the Allied Domecq Pension Fund, in which role she worked on a £3.8bn buy-in.
Neil McPherson, managing director of Capital Cranfield, said Hamilton-Stanley’s appointment meant that the firm’s professional trustees have worked on two of the five largest insured transactions seen in the UK.
Aon – Fred Marchlewski, CEO retirement and investment Germany and CEMEA at Aon, is leaving at his own request after eight years at the firm.
Gundula Dietrich and Thorsten Teichmann, current managing directors, will take over Marchlewski’s responsibilities. The retirement and investment division will in the future operate under the name Wealth Solutions at Aon.
Dietrich has served at Aon since 2001. She was appointed managing director of Aon Solutions Germany in 2020. Teichmann has worked at Aon for over 30 years. He took over the post of managing director of Aon Pensions Insurance Broker in 2012.
Säkra – Swedish insurance intermediary Säkra announced it is trying to strengthen its life and pensions divisions by appointing Fredrik Holmqvist and Oscar Alm to “central roles” within the organisation.
Holmqvist is to be tasked with broadening the firm’s customer offering, while Alm will be responsible for business development and international business, it said.
Säkra said the pair were joining the company from similar roles at Swedish advisory firm Max Matthiessen. Holmqvist had also previously worked as a pension consultant at PRI Pensiongaranti and held several positions within SPP, Aon, Willis Towers Watson and Mercer, the firm said. Meanwhile Alm had a background as a pension consultant at Aon and as a pension and insurance specialist at Alecta, it said.
Säkra said the pair would take up their new roles from 1 January.
Lombard Odier Investment Managers – The asset manager has created a new role, head of climate and environmental solutions, hiring Lorenzo Bernasconi from the Rockefeller Foundation for the position.
At Rockefeller, Bernasconi was managing director of innovative finance, managing the ‘Zero Gap’ portfolio to mobilise capital towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. He has also previously worked at UBS and the Boston Consulting Group and is founding board chair of Emergent Forest Finance Accelerator, a non-profit intermediary which most recently helped launch the LEAF Coalition, the largest ever public-private effort to protect tropical forests through the voluntary carbon markets.
Bernasconi is also a research fellow at Stanford University’s Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance.
“Lorenzo brings a rare blend of knowledge and experience that will support us immensely as we continue to expand our climate and natural capital offering across asset classes,” said Christopher Kaminker, group head of sustainable investment research and strategy at Lombard Odier. “Globally, investor appetite for natural climate solutions is surging and this is good news as 50% of our global economy depends on natural capital, and nature has the potential to deliver over a third of emissions reductions to 2030, if it is harnessed appropriately,” he added.
Ross Trustees – The professional trustee and pensions services firm has appointed Dickon Best as trustee director. He joins from PwC where he was a director in the pensions employer covenant and restructuring practice.
Dickon brings more than 15 years of direct pensions experience to Ross Trustees. At PwC, he advised both pension scheme trustees and sponsoring employers on how covenant integrates with funding and investment. A large proportion of this experience was gained through close involvement in complex and high-profile schemes, as well as helping trustees when the employer sponsoring their scheme was in financial distress.
A trained insolvency practitioner, Dickon spent a period of time at The Pensions Regulator to build a deep understanding of the regulator’s powers, which has proved of particular value to clients.
Dickon is the third senior appointment of 2021 at Ross Trustees and continues the firm’s expansion across all levels of the team.
Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute (AFII) – Ulf Erlandsson, a former portfolio manager at Swedish buffer fund AP4, has secured Justine Leigh-Bell for the role of executive director at the organisation he officially launched last year.
Leigh-Bell was most recently deputy CEO of the Climate Bonds Initiative, an influential NGO, where she led the market development strategy for green bonds in emerging economies. At AFII she will be responsible for leading the business development and execution of AFII’s activities on rapidly shifting fixed income markets towards climate positive impact.
“I have worked closely with CBI over the past decade and observed Justine’s impressive contribution to bringing CBI to the forefront of the green bond space,” said Erlandsson. “IAFII has had a great reception of its novel market practitioner approach to fixed income and climate impact. Justine is a crucial component to take AFII’s strategy and organisation to the next level.”
Leigh-Bell said: “I’m thrilled to be joining the AFII team, where together, we will strive to become the leading, credible voice on how to rapidly shift the fixed income markets to net zero.”
AXA Investment Managers – Mark Hargraves will lead a new equity platform that will combine AXA’s fundamental (Framlington Equities) and quantitative (Rosenberg Equities) equity capabalities from January 2022. Hargraves is currently global head of AXA IM Framlington Equities and his new position will be global head of AXA IM equity.
The Framlington names will be phased out as part of the new set-up, which will see AXA IM Core Investments’ comprised of three platforms: AXA IM Equity, headed by Hargraves, AXA IM Fixed Income, headed by Marion Le Morhedec, and AXA IM Multi-Asset, headed by Serge Pizem.
AAE – Mária Kamenárová has been elected the new chair of the Actuarial Association of Europe for the next year, succeeding Wilhelm Schneemeier.
A Slovakian national, Kamenárová has served on the AAE board of directors since 2017 and been active in many roles in the association. She is current president of the Slovak actuarial society.
“I feel honoured to represent this great organisation of volunteers as chairperson,” she said. “Our communities face many challenges: on-going COVID-19 pandemic, new risks emerging from the impact of climate change, finalisation of implementation of IFRS17 accounting standard, and changing EU regulations: Solvency II, IORPs, sustainability – just to name a few – are all impacting insurers, pension funds, consumers and therefore also the work of actuaries.
“In the same time the actuarial profession is continuously transforming the traditional roles and becomes prepared to face future requirements and opportunities.”
Robeco – Emma Casey has joined Robeco as consultant relations manager to its global consultant relations team.
Casey will be responsible for strengthening Robeco’s footprint with consultants both globally and in the UK. She will be based in London and will report to Peter Walsh, global head of consultant relations and head of Robeco UK.
Casey brings strong experience to the team and joins from Janus Henderson, where she sat in the firm’s global consultant relations group.
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