People moves: Railpen names sustainable ownership co-heads

Railpen – The UK’s rail workers’ pension fund has appointed Caroline Escott as head of investment stewardship and co-head of sustainable ownership at Railpen, following her previous role as senior investment manager since September 2020.

Escott also chairs Standard Life UK’s investment and sustainability committee.

Adam Gillett has also taken on a new position as head of sustainable investment and co-head of sustainable ownership. He joined Railpen in 2023 as a climate lead.

Both Escott and Gillett will continue to report to Michael Marshall, Railpen’s director of investment risk and sustainable ownership.

Future of Sustainable Data Alliance (FoSDA) – Magnus Billing, former chief executive officer of Swedish pension provider Alecta, has been named independent chair of the sustainable finance data group. His appointment to the newly created role follows the arrival of Will Goodhart, former CEO of CFA UK, as FosDA’s CEO.

Billing was forced to step down from Alecta in 2023 following huge losses as a result of exposure to the US banking sector. He is currently a non-executive director and senior adviser to organisations operating within the field of sustainability, development finance and geospatial analytics on physical climate risk and biodiversity.

SL Pension Fund – Ragnar Leví Guðmundarson has been hired by the Icelandic pension fund as its new head of risk management, replacing Guðmundur Stefán Steindórsson, who has taken over as CEO after the retirement of Sigurbjörn Sigurbjörnsson.

Guðmundarson is completing a PhD in actuarial science at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, where his research includes the use of machine learning in risk and asset management, according to the pension fund’s announcement.

He has previously worked at Icelandic non-life insurer VÍS, where he handled insurance liability calculations and risk analysis.

M&G Investments – Neil Godfrey has been appointed as global head of client group to lead all distribution, marketing and client experience teams within the firm’s asset management business. He will join on 16 June and become a member of the executive leadership team, reporting to Joseph Pinto, CEO of M&G Investments.

Godfrey has more than 24 years of asset management experience from Barings, formerly Babson Capital, where he was global head of distribution, leading product planning for both distribution and client portfolio management, across public and private markets.

He has over a decade’s experience designing and taking to market private asset strategies for institutional investors. Prior to this, he spent five years at Barclays Global Investors, with responsibility for capital raising and distribution for corporate and financial institutional clients in the UK and EMEA.

Godfrey succeeds Neal Brooks, who has decided to step down after almost 30 years with M&G, having held a number of senior leadership roles across the business, including distribution, business change, product and business development, and investments.

Pacific Asset Management – The London-based asset manager has appointed John Tevenan as partner and head of global financial institutions distribution. He will be based in London and report to Mary Murphy, partner and global head of institutional and wholesale distribution.

Tevenan joins from Jupiter Asset Management where he spent 15 years, most recently as global head of the financial institutions group, responsible for banks, insurance companies and cross-border accounts. Prior to this, he spent almost six years as sales director for Investec Asset Management.

In his new role, Tevenan will be responsible for building and maintaining relationships with private banks, globally.

Canbury – The sustainable investment consultancy has hired Luma Saqqaf as a senior adviser to help grow the firm’s practice in the Middle East, where she has more than 30 years of experience in sustainable and Islamic finance markets.

A former IMEA director for the Principles of Responsible Investment, Saqqaf is a member of the IUCN Climate Crisis Commission and the Kunming Biodiversity Fund Independent Advisory Technical Group.

Saqqaf’s appointment comes as Canbury recently opened an Australian office, led by Florence Van Dyke and Jackson Rowland, who started their careers as corporate lawyers at Bell Gully. Van Dyke went on to found one of the world’s leading B Corps and head up the global sustainability team at New Zealand’s Trade Ministry, while Rowland has a decade of experience in impact investing and investor stewardship and is an Obama Scholar.

Canbury was founded by Will Martindale and Ben Wilmot in 2023. Both were directors of Cardano at the time.

Barnett Waddingham (BW) – The UK consultancy has appointed five new partners to drive its ongoing business growth and expansion across key markets. The firm has also announced eight principal and 27 associate promotions, made across the entirety of BW’s diverse service offering of risk, pensions, investment and insurance.

Both the partner appointments and key promotions follow the recent news of BW’s acquisition by Howden, a global insurance and employee benefits intermediary group.

“This move marks an exciting new phase of growth and opportunity for the business and reflects BW’s ongoing commitment to investing in its people, capabilities, and technological innovation, while demonstrating the scale and breadth of expertise within the firm,” it said.

The five new partners are Lewys Curteis, (DB pensions consulting), Julien Masselot (insurance and longevity consulting), Nikhil Patel (risk transfer consulting), Harshil Shah (risk and resilience services), and Reena Tanna (DC investment consulting).

Quantum Advisory – The pensions and employee benefits consultancy for small and medium-sized schemes and employers has appointed Karyn Cooke as senior consultant and actuary.

Cooke joins from Hymans Robertson where she was consultant and actuary advising trustees of DB schemes across actuarial and governance matters.

WTW – The consultancy has appointed Nikolaus Schmidt-Narischkin as chair of the management board of Willis Towers Watson Investments. Schmidt-Narischkin succeeds Matthias Paetzel, who will soon leave WTW.

Schmidt-Narischkin is a member of the executive board of Willis Towers Watson Investments, advising companies and occupational pension schemes on investment and liability matching strategies.

As key account and lead relationship director, he is responsible for a number of multinational companies and contributes to the further development and deepening of WTW’s market presence. He has also been the CIO of WTW Pensionsfonds for over 10 years.

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