People moves: Railpen names infrastructure, productive assets heads

Railpen – The investment manager for the £34bn UK railways pension schemes has made a couple of promotions.

Lewis Vanstone, who joined Railpen in 2019, has been named as head of infrastructure. He has played a central role in expanding Railpen’s infrastructure portfolio across renewable energy, energy storage, waste collection, hospitals and other essential infrastructure projects – with a steady shift from core assets into higher-returning, earlier-stage growth infrastructure.

His appointment reflects the organisation’s commitment to delivering long-term, sustainable returns for the 350,000 members of the railways’ pension schemes, Railpen said.

Railpen continues to increase its allocation to infrastructure, an asset class that often provides resilient cash flows, inflation protection, and long-duration assets which closely align with the needs of the schemes, it added.

Vanstone will lead Railpen’s infrastructure team as it deepens its presence in renewable energy and essential services infrastructure, including the expansion of key collaborations – such as those with AGR Power and Constantine Energy Storage, while exploring new opportunities that support the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Furthermore, Julia Diez has been named as head of UK productive assets. In her new position, she will be responsible for directing the strategic vision and execution of Railpen’s productive asset portfolio, with a particular emphasis on UK innovation-focused investments.

Diez will also coordinate efforts across real estate, infrastructure, and other private market assets. She will collaborate closely with both public and private sector partners to promote growth, enhance value creation, and support long-term sustainability throughout Railpen’s UK investment activities, working on behalf of the railways pension schemes’ trustees.

Lazard Asset Management – Christopher Hogbin has been appointed chief executive officer of the firm, effective December 2025.

Hogbin has 30 years of professional experience, including 20 years at AllianceBernstein where he most recently served as global head of investments and a member of its executive leadership team. He played a pivotal role in expanding and diversifying AllianceBernstein’s investment capabilities across public and private markets, elevating its research function, and delivering exceptional outcomes for clients and growth for the firm.

At Lazard AM, Hogbin succeeds Evan Russo, who, after two decades of contributions to Lazard, will step into an advisory role following the transition. Russo joined Lazard in 2007, and in addition to serving as CEO of Lazard Asset Management, he has held several leadership roles during his tenure, including chief financial officer of Lazard and co-head of Lazard’s capital markets and capital structure advisory practice.

ATP – Maria Damborg Hald has been appointed by the Danish statutory pension fund as the head of a newly-merged department which encompasses Payments Denmark (Udbetaling Danmark) and Pension & Labour Market.

Hald will start her new role on 1 October, joining from her current job as partner at Deloitte in Copenhagen.

The new department has been formed as part of an organisational revamp led by ATP CEO Martin Præstegaard and dubbed “ready for the future”, under which the pension fund is merging its customer-orientated departments.

That change has resulted in the departures of Anne Kristine Axelsson and Kristine Stenhuus, who have left their positions as director of ATP Pension & Labour Market and director of Payments Denmark, respectively.

ATP’s chief financial officer Pernille Vastrup is acting director of the new combined business area ahead of Damborg Hall’s arrival.

Velliv – Frederik Romedahl Poulsen, chief analyst for large corporates and institutions at Danske Bank, has been appointed by Danish pension provider Velliv as its new chief strategist – a role he will take up in January 2026. The chief strategist role is a newly-created one, according to a Velliv spokesman.

Meanwhile, Søren Herrestrup Husted is taking over as the new chief compliance officer at Velliv from 1 September, from his current role at the Danish pensions firm of director of sales and consulting, replacing Morten Møller, who is leaving the company.

Independent Governance Group (IGG) – The UK’s provider of professional pensions trusteeship and governance services, has appointed Hatty Goodwin as trustee director and head of risk transfer.

Goodwin will lead IGG’s risk transfer team, further building on the company’s reputation as the pre-eminent professional trustee firm operating in the risk transfer space and will be based in IGG’s Bristol office. She brings more than 17 years of experience to the role, having worked within an array of advisory firms, including WTW, Capita, Broadstone, and most recently Aon, where she led the investment risk settlement team.

Away from her day-to-day, Goodwin is chair of trustees for Marmalade Trust, a charity dedicated to raising awareness of loneliness and empowering people to make connections, as well as a trustee for Bristol Metropolitan Orchestra.

HS Trustees – Paula Maguire has been appointed as the firm’s first trustee based in Scotland.

Maguire is an accredited professional trustee with more than 20 years of experience working directly with trustee boards and sponsors, managing all aspects of trustee governance and scheme management. She has a strong background in pensions management and corporate pensions strategy.

At HS Trustees, Maguire will cover sustainability, investment, administration, governance, mastertrust, de-risking, with-profits, legal, and now pensions management.

Maguire has more than 35 years of experience working in the pensions industry, most recently as head of pensions for The Weir Group for a period of eight years. Prior to that, she has worked in-house managing schemes at University of Edinburgh, Forth Ports and Johnston Press. She is also a principal examiner for the Pensions Management Institute (PMI).

Aviva Investors – The global asset management business of Aviva has announced two senior hires to its global equities team.

Nicholette MacDonald-Brown has been appointed global head of active equities. In this new role, she will manage Aviva Investors’ global equities team and will report to Daniel McHugh, chief investment officer, joining his senior leadership team.

MacDonald-Brown has 23 years of experience managing global equity funds and teams, with a specialist focus on sustainability-driven funds. She joins from Lombard Odier Investment Management, where she was head of sustainable equities.

In addition, Matt Bennison has been appointed head of UK active equities, reporting to MacDonald-Brown. Bennison joins from Schroders where he spent 12 years, latterly as a portfolio manager in the UK equities team, responsible for managing over £5bn of UK equity assets.

The hires follow the return of Richard Saldanha to Aviva Investors in June, to co-manage the Aviva Investors Global Equity Income Fund.

Separately, the firm has also appointed Danielle LeClair as investment director, Americas, as it continues to build out its resources in the region.

It is the third senior hire made by Aviva Investors to its Toronto-based team in the last month and comes after the appointment of Julie Caron as head of institutional, Americas, and Dean Liotta as managing director, institutional, Americas, to its regional distribution capabilities in August.

In the newly-created role, LeCLair will report to Barney Goodchild, head of fixed income and equity investment specialists.

LeClair joins from Morningstar, where she was director of manager research for Canada, leading a team of analysts responsible for the qualitative assessment and ratings of open-end funds, ETFs, and segregated mandates in the Canadian market.

London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) – A Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) administering authority and £8bn LGPS fund with around 100,000 members, has appointed Tegs Harding as a new member of its board.

Harding is an established professional trustee and head of sustainability for Independent Governance Group (IGG) and brings experience across various pension scheme sectors, including defined contribution (DC) master trusts, defined benefit (DB), and collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes. Harding is a qualified actuary and a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, has a deep understanding of pension finance, risk, and the wider regulatory environment.

Harding brings extensive experience chairing investment committees for several large schemes, including a large DC master trust. She also chairs the funding and investment committee for the UK’s first CDC scheme. Furthermore, Harding has a proven track record of implementing ESG policies, including net zero targets, for several multi-billion-pound pension funds, and has led on policy as well as member communication on ESG and climate-aware investing to improve engagement and understanding around schemes’ net zero ambitions.

Broadstone – The UK consultancy has appointed Cormac Bradley as senior actuarial director. He joins Broadstone’s insurance, regulatory and risk division within its non-life Insurance team, which delivers a range of actuarial and consulting services to the market.

Bradley brings almost 30 years of experience to Broadstone from the senior actuarial roles he has held at Direct Line Insurance Group – now part of Aviva – and WTW.

Bradley’s appointment enhances Broadstone’s capacity in the non-life sector, where he will be meeting client needs such as risk and capital management, reserving and chief actuary support across (re)insurers.

GIB Asset Management – Aled Smith has been appointed as the firm’s CIO. He will focus on GIB AM’s active products – the Emerging Markets Active Engagement Fund and the Sustainable World Corporate Bond Fund.

In addition, Smith will support GIB AM’s indexation offering and play a key role in the expansion of the firm’s emerging markets strategies, including the potential launch of a globally distributed Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-focused fund and the assessment of targeted acquisitions to complement the firm’s existing emerging markets equity and global fixed income strategies.

The appointment reflects GIB AM’s commitment to building a focused and differentiated asset management business, delivering long-term value for clients and stakeholders, the firm stated.

Smith brings more than 30 years of investment experience to GIB AM. His career includes senior leadership roles such as deputy CIO at Ruffer, CIO at JO Hambro, and nearly two decades as fund manager and head of global equities at M&G.

SEI international – The firm has expanded Sanjay Sharma’s role to serve as CEO of SEI International. With more than 25 years of financial services industry experience, spanning four continents and 11 countries, he will be responsible for developing, coordinating, and executing growth strategies across all non-North American jurisdictions.

Sharma will continue to lead SEI’s private banking business globally. He will work closely with domestic and international leadership across the company to evolve and implement an integrated business and workforce strategy.

Sharma’s focus will be on optimising SEI’s growth opportunities, maximising returns on invested capital, and continuing to drive cultural alignment and enterprise positioning.

Schroders – The asset management firm has unveiled enhancements to its client-first proposition with the appointment of Ed Mitchell as head of client group strategy execution and delivery.

Mitchell joins from BNY Investments, where he was managing director and global head of distribution business operations for six years. Mitchell, who boasts extensive global experience following previous stints at Henderson Global Investors and Barclays, will report to Matt Oomen, global head of client group.

In this newly created role, Mitchell will be responsible for enhancing and delivering Schroders’ sales and client strategy, as well as its risk and governance frameworks across the client group.

LD Pensions – Nanna Højlund has been appointed as the new chair of the board of LD Pensions in Denmark.

Højlund, who is deputy chair of the Danish Trade Union Confederation (Fagbevægelsens Hovedorganisation), replaces Morten Skov Christiansen on the board of the Danish pensions manager, who has been LD Pensions chair since May 2023.

Barnett Waddingham – The consultancy has bolstered its risk and resilience team with a senior appointment. Will Scobie has been appointed as senior risk and resilience consultant.

Scobie brings extensive leadership experience and deep expertise in organisational resilience, crisis management, supply chain resilience and business strategy, and joins after 10 years leading Horizonscan, a boutique consultancy specialising in risk and resilience. His comprehensive management background also spans finance, operations, HR, business development, strategy, and governance.

In his new role, Scobie will help grow Barnett Waddingham‘s resilience practice, whilst leveraging his broad expertise to support and lead client projects across the wider risk and digital resilience areas. He will also drive new business development for the team.

The appointment reinforces the firm’s commitment to “delivering deeper advisory services in risk management, helping organisations identify vulnerabilities, prepare for diverse threats, and build comprehensive resilience frameworks tailored to their specific sector, size, and structure”, Barnett Waddingham stated. 

Arbra Partners – The alternative investments specialist has appointed Laurent Mazens as CEO of its Geneva business.

Mazens, who started his role on 1 July, is responsible for driving the continued growth of the business in Switzerland and developing its strategy as the firm’s footprint expands and evolves.

He has more than 20 years of experience in the international finance industry and has held executive roles in Singapore and Switzerland, most recently as CEO of Stanhope Capital (Switzerland) in Geneva. In addition, Mazens has strong experience of the Middle East and Asian markets, having built significant business across both jurisdictions in previous roles – these are key growth regions for Arbra.

Faros – The German pension assets consultancy has appointed Andreas Weigl as its new managing director.

In his new role, Weigl is responsible for further developing the firm’s strategy,  marketing and sales, internal organisation, and client advisory services relating to institutional asset management.

Faros also named Thorsten Wellein as the new CIO of Faros Fiduciary Management, effective October. In his new role, Wellein is responsible for the development and implementation of customised investment strategies in liquid and illiquid asset classes in the portfolios of institutional investors.

Wellein succeeds Jens Kummer, who will leave the company at the end of September at his own request to pursue new professional challenges.

Indefi – The strategy consultancy has officially opened a new office in London and appointed Nick Ring, former CEO of Columbia Threadneedle Investments EMEA, as chair of its UK business.

This strategic expansion ensures that Indefi and its senior leadership team are even closer to the key decision-making centres of its clients, across both public and private markets. The move comes as the industry navigates a period of significant transformation driven by structural shifts and evolving client needs.

As chair, Ring’s deep sector expertise gained from over three decades in the industry will support clients as they navigate these megatrends, as well as advising on how to further enhance the service Indefi is providing to its clients, in the UK and internationally. As part of this expansion, a number of employees will be transferred to the UK office, with further senior appointments to be made in due course.

AP1/NCC/Nordea Fonder – Anna Magnusson is leaving her role as a member of the nomination committee for the Nordic construction company NCC, where she represents the Swedish national pensions buffer fund AP1.

The exit is due to the fact AP1 is being liquidated at the end of this year, with its assets being split between the two remaining Stockholm-based buffer funds, AP3 and AP4.

Magnusson will be replaced on the NCC committee by Mats Hellström, representing Nordea Fonder, the construction firm announced.

AP3 – Jonas Bergroth has been hired by the Swedish national pensions buffer fund as a quantitative portfolio analyst, joining from SEB Asset Management, where he was portfolio manager, asset allocation and research for just over a year. Before that, he was a portfolio manager at Erik Penser Bank.

Fredrik Myrén has also been recruited by AP3, which is set to expand its assets significantly next year as it absorbs half of the assets currently managed by AP1, taking on the role of equity manager emerging markets/global. Myrén joins from Swedbank Robur, where he worked for 18 years.

Hymans Robertson – Donna Prince has been appointed as head of member experience within the firm’s risk transfer and wind-up practice.

This newly created role reflects Hymans Robertson’s growing focus on member outcomes as a critical component of risk transfer strategy. In this role, Prince will lead the development and delivery of member experience solutions and ensure that pension funds are equipped to place member needs at the heart of their decision-making.

Prince will ensure sponsors and trustees have a clear and detailed understanding of insurer propositions and administration capabilities through buy-in, to buyout and beyond. This will enable effective trustee decision-making, the ability to compare to existing member experience and ultimately enhance member outcomes, the firm stated.

With close to 20 years of experience advising clients, Prince has worked across a wide range of scheme sizes and complexities, now specialising in buyout and wind-up transitions and leads Hymans’ relationship with all of the insurers’ transition teams.

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