People moves: Robeco appoints new CIO

Robeco – Anton Eser has been appointed chief investment officer and member of the executive committee of Robeco, effective 1 September 2025.

Eser will succeed Mark van der Kroft, who will retire as of 1 October 2025.

Eser brings more than 25 years of experience in global financial markets. He spent 13 years at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), where he was appointed CIO in 2016. During his tenure, he played a pivotal role in transforming LGIM from a UK-focused firm into a global asset manager with over $1.5trn in assets under management.

Mark van der Kroft has served as CIO at Robeco since 2020 and has been with the company since 2000.

Kåpan – Marie Giertz is leaving her position as chief executive officer of Kåpan, the SEK170bn (€15bn) Swedish government employees’ pension fund announced.

The pension fund said Giertz, who was only promoted to CEO from chief investment officer early this year, told the board she was resigning due to personal reasons in order to focus on her family.

Ann Follin, chair of the Kåpan board, said Giertz had been a valued employee of the pension fund for many years, and had shouldered the CEO role well. Kåpan said it would start work to find a replacement for her immediately.

Mercer – Tamsin Coleman has been appointed as head of private credit for Europe. She is based in London and reports to David Scopelliti, global head of private equity and private credit.

In her expanded role, Coleman will be responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and monitoring private debt investment opportunities across Europe. She will lead a team dedicated to researching and investing in private credit strategies.

Most recently, she authored the first edition of Mercer’s Private markets in motion, a new thought leadership series showcasing key trends and capital flows in a different private markets asset class each quarter, underpinned by proprietary data obtained from global asset managers.

Coleman brings over a decade of specialised experience investing in private debt. During her time at Mercer, she worked as a private debt specialist within the insurance solutions practice, later joining the private debt team. She has demonstrated a strong track record of managing private credit portfolios and developing strategic investment approaches across diverse markets.

Aviva Investors – The global asset management business of Aviva has appointed Sam Postlethwaite to the newly created role of head of global consultant relations.

Reporting to Steven Gardner, head of institutional, EMEA, and based in London, Postlethwaite will lead and develop Aviva Investors’ relationships with consultants across regions and business lines.

Postlethwaite joins from UBS Asset Management where he was most recently head of global consultant relations for EMEA and APAC, responsible for managing relationships with manager researchers, advisory and delegated consultants at global investment consulting firms. Prior to joining UBS AM, he was a regional consultant at Russell Investments’ Toronto office, where he focused on business development across asset classes.

Ilmarinen – Mikko Mursula has been appointed as president and CEO of the Finnish mutual pensions insurance company, taking over the top role from Jouko Pölönen, who has been poached by Finnish asset management and corporate finance group eQ as its new CEO.

Mursula, who has been CIO of Ilmarinen since 2015 – and deputy CEO since 2021 – will start as the €63bn pensions firm’s CEO on 1 September.

Pantheon – The global private markets investor has appointed Florence Dard as partner, chief client officer, effective 7 October.

Based in London, Dard will develop and lead the firm’s capital formation and client relationship strategy, reflecting Pantheon’s continued momentum and the growing demand for its private markets expertise, in particular its secondaries leadership across asset classes. She will also join the firm’s executive committee.

Reporting to CEO Kathryn Leaf, Dard will oversee Pantheon’s end-to-end distribution efforts —spanning capital formation, client engagement, marketing, and product strategy – for Pantheon’s growing base of more than 750 clients globally.

Dard brings over 25 years of experience managing capital raising and client relationships across a wide range of global institutional and private wealth investors. Before Pantheon, she spent much of her career at AXA Investment Managers, most recently as global head of client group, alternatives, where she oversaw capital raising for real estate, infrastructure, private credit, and private equity, and managed a team of 80 people serving over 600 clients.

Franklin Templeton – Rich Nuzum, former executive director, investments, at Mercer, has joined Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions (FTIS) as head of outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO). Nuzum will be based in New York and report directly to Adam Petryk, head of FTIS.

Nuzum will lead the development and expansion of the OCIO business at FTIS, building on the successful growth of the firm’s solutions business over the past several years. As clients increasingly tap into the extensive investment capabilities Franklin Templeton offers, FTIS fulfils a strategic role as an access point to these capabilities. Developing the OCIO business is a natural extension of this strategy.

Nuzum joins Franklin Templeton from Mercer where he spent more than three decades providing investment consulting advice to institutional investors.

GAM Investments — Karim Carmoun has been hired as managing director to lead the firm’s activities across France, Benelux and Monaco.

Based in Paris, Carmoun will report directly to GAM’s incoming group chief distribution officer, Tim Rainsford, who will re-join the firm on 1 October. Raisnford returns to GAM after holding senior roles at Generali Investments Partners as CEO, and most recently as chief product and distribution officer at Generali Asset Management.

Carmoun’s appointment marks a key moment in GAM’s growth strategy in Europe, supported by NJJ Holding SA, the private investment group of French entrepreneur Xavier Niel and GAM’s majority shareholder.

Under new leadership, GAM is sharpening its focus on its specialist active, alternatives and wealth management capabilities, giving clients access to top-tier investment talent and differentiated strategies.

Carmoun brings more than 20 years of experience in asset management and a deep understanding of the French and Benelux markets. He spent the past decade at Robeco, where he served as CEO of Robeco France, following senior roles at Fidelity, Crédit Agricole, and BNP Paribas.

CalPERS — Mascha Canio, former head of credit risk sharing at PGGM, has joined the California Public Employees’ Retirement System as managing investment director for its private debt portfolio.

Canio has decades of experience managing a variety of asset types on behalf of pension systems. She joins CalPERS after nine years as head of credit and insurance-linked investments at Dutch pension fund service provider PGGM, where she has managed assets valued at approximately $17bn.

CalPERS’s private debt programme has been under the interim direction of Anton Orlich, head of private equity, for the past year.

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