People moves: Swedish pension fund Kåpan poaches SPK Pension chief

Kåpan Tjänstepension  – Swedish pension fund Kåpan has poached the CEO of SPK Pension  to fill the gap left at the helm of its management team by Marie Giertz’s sudden exit last summer. Kåpan announced that its board has appointed Lars-Åke Vikberg  as the permanent replacement for Giertz, who quit six months ago for personal reasons.

Vikberg, who has been CEO of SPK Pension since 2018, is to start work as CEO of SEK170bn (€15.8bn) government pension fund Kåpan on 1 July, according to the announcement made before Christmas.

Before working at SPK Pension, Vikberg was on the management board of Folksam and CEO of KPA Pension.

Ann Follin, Kåpan’s chair, said the board was pleased Vikberg had accepted the CEO job. “With his long and solid background as both an expert and leader in the pension and finance industry, he will contribute to stability and development at a time when Kåpan is growing,” she said.

Kåpan’s former CEO Gunnar Balsvik  has been acting CEO since Giertz’s departure.

At SPK Pension, board chair Gregori Karamouzis  told IPE: “We are delighted for Lars-Åke and the opportunity he has been given through his new assignment at Kåpan,” and added that his board would now begin the process of recruiting a new CEO.

Railpen  – The UK-based £34bn railways pension fund has appointed Sarah Gray as general counsel. 

Gray joins from the Post Office, where she was most recently interim group general counsel. She brings decades of legal experience to Railpen, with previous senior roles at Santander and RSA, among other major companies.

Gray will join Railpen’s executive committee, leading the legal, compliance, governance and financial crime functions, reporting directly to CEO Andy Bord. She replaces Sally-Ann James, who is retiring.

Lazard Asset Management – Eric Van Nostrand has been appointed chief investment officer, a newly created role established to strengthen the cohesion, discipline, and effectiveness of Lazard’s global investment platform. As CIO, he will be responsible for investment oversight and for advancing the processes that support consistent, long-term outcomes for clients.

In this role, Van Nostrand’s remit includes oversight of investment processes, driving economic and investment debate across the platform, and ongoing review of strategies and risk frameworks. Portfolio managers will report to the CIO but remain responsible for the investment decisions in their portfolios.

Van Nostrand most recently served as global head of markets and chief economist at Lazard. Prior to joining Lazard, he served as acting assistant secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, where he led the office responsible for analysing domestic and international US economic policies.

Impax Asset Management  – The firm has appointed Stuart White as executive director, business development.

In this newly created role, White will be responsible for coordinating the implementation of Impax’s strategy and business development, for initiating and managing client partnerships and for leading the further evolution of the firm’s systematic equities commercial strategy.

White, who joined on 2 January and is based in London, reports to Impax’s founder and CEO Ian Simm and will sit on Impax’s management committee.

White joins from HSBC Asset Management, where he spent the last five years as CEO, UK, leading a business unit with £150b of assets under management. During his 15-year career at the firm, he held a number of roles, including CEO, international; global head of strategy, M&A and chief of staff; and head of UK institutional.

Aviva Investors  – The global asset management business of Aviva has strengthened its private markets investment specialists team, appointing a head of private markets equity as part of three external hires. The firm has also made a number of internal appointments as it continues to respond to increased client demand for its breadth of private markets capabilities.

Callum Fraser joins as head of private markets equity after five years at Barings, most recently as senior director for client portfolio management within its European real estate team. Prior to this, he spent almost five years at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), latterly covering real assets solutions.

Joining Fraser, Kevin Au has also been appointed as senior investment specialist to support Aviva Investors’ real estate efforts. Au joins Aviva Investors after four and a half years at LGIM, where he covered UK real estate, including the build-to-rent and broader UK residential sector.

Aviva Investors has also strengthened its team of investment specialists supporting its debt-based private markets strategies, with the arrival of Neon Shariful as investment director covering private debt. He joins Aviva Investors after two and a half years at the Australian HostPlus  superannuation fund, within its private markets team.

Alongside the three external hires, Oliver Welch and Yusuf Shaheen, both investment specialists within the firm’s public markets team, have been named investment director for private markets and private debt investment specialist, respectively.

Oaktree Capital Management  – James Greenwood  has been appointed as senior advisor and Kieran Thind as senior vice president within Oaktree’s European private debt team, based in London.

Greenwood joins the firm with more than three decades of experience across leveraged finance and private credit. He most recently served as CEO of Permira Credit, where he helped build the platform into a scaled European private credit business, advising sponsor-backed transactions across multiple market cycles. Prior to Permira, he held senior leadership roles at Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Bankers Trust and Continental Bank.

Thind joins from ICG, where he was a managing director focused on originating and executing sponsor-backed senior debt transactions across Europe and the US. He brings broad sector experience and strong sponsor relationships across the UK and Northern Europe, having previously held roles at Railpen Investments, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Nomura International and UBS.

These appointments follow the 2025 additions of Jens Bauer, portfolio manager, and Alessandro Nuti, managing director, in London, reflecting the continued expansion of Oaktree’s European private debt team as the firm builds out its regional capabilities.

People’s Partnership  – The provider of the People’s Pension has announced that leading pensions expert Jackie Leiper  has joined People’s Partnership Limited (PPL) as a non-executive director.

Leiper brings extensive executive and technical experience in financial services, with deep expertise in pensions and investments. She has held senior roles within Lloyds Banking Group, including chief customer and digital officer, CEO of Embark Group, and managing director of Workplace Pensions, Individual Pensions & Investments.  

Leiper has served on multiple boards, including deputy chair of Scottish Financial Enterprise, chair of the ABI Long Term Savings Committee, trustee of the Bank of Scotland Foundation, and the CAF Group Board as trustee.

Neuberger Berman  – The firm has appointed Vera German and Juan Torres  as senior portfolio managers on its emerging markets equity team, based in London.

They both join Neuberger from Schroders, where they served as co-lead portfolio managers on an emerging markets value strategy that delivered first percentile performance since inception in 2020. As part of a thoughtful transition, both new hires will assume team leadership and portfolio management responsibilities in early 2026.  

Conrad Saldanha, managing director and senior portfolio manager on the emerging market equity team, who has been with Neuberger Berman since 2008, has decided to pursue new opportunities outside the firm.

Allspring Global Investments  – The global asset management company has named Andrew Epsom as head of insurance – international. He will report to Catherine McLaughlin, head of institutional – UK, Ireland and the Netherlands, and is based in London.

In this newly created role, Epsom will lead Allspring’s international (ex-US) insurance efforts, leading the strategy to expand the firm’s footprint across global insurance markets. He will be responsible for driving strategic engagements that address the unique regulatory and investment needs of insurers.

Epsom brings a depth of knowledge with more than 25 years of experience working with insurers across both the asset management and consulting industries. He will be responsible for building new relationships and working across Allspring’s international teams to develop its existing international insurance footprint.

Growth in the insurance segment is expected to continue as defined benefit plans increasingly transition to buyout arrangements, creating significant opportunities for insurers and asset managers alike, the firm stated.

The Finance Transition Centre  – Steve Waygood, a major industry figure in responsible investment, has left buy-side fund management to take on the role of founding CEO of a new think tank.

Waygood started his career in responsible investment at WWF in 1995 and worked for Aviva Investors from 2006, founding its global responsible investment team and the Sustainable Finance Centre for Excellence, which Aviva closed last year. He also co-founded the World Benchmarking Alliance and the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark, as well as the UN Sustainable Stock Exchange Initiative.

Waygood has advised the UK government, the European Commission, the Financial Stability Board and the UN on the creation of sustainable capital markets.

Announcing his professional move on LinkedIn, Waygood said it had been an “exceptionally difficult decision” to leave Aviva Investors, but that it was time to move on. He said the new think tank would focus on mobilising capital to accelerate the global shift to a sustainable economy and that it would build on much of the work he catalysed through the Sustainable Finance Centre for Excellence.

A spokesman for Aviva said the firm extended “a massive thank you to Steve for all his energy and expertise over the past two decades at Aviva Investors”. He said the firm’s overall sustainability approach and team continued to be led by Mirza Baig, chief sustainable investing officer and a member of Aviva Investors’ global executive committee.

JP Morgan  – Arne Martin Moen  has been hired as the firm’s new head of securities services for the Nordics.

In this newly created role based in Oslo, Moen will focus on the firm’s growth strategy and strengthening its commitment in this region.

Moen has more than 20 years of experience in asset management, primarily working in the Nordics and most recently as chief operating officer and head of investment operations and technology at Storebrand Asset Management in Oslo.

The Pensions Regulator  – The UK’s pensions regulator has appointed Kim Goodall-Brown as director of defined contribution (DC) and master trust supervision.

Goodall-Brown announced her new position, which she started at the beginning of the month, on her LinkedIn profile. She was previously head of mastertrust and Independent Governance Committees (IGC) at Legal & General and before that was pension scheme director at Legal & General Investment Management.

She was also a Pensions UK DC committee member and is currently an independent board member at the UK’s  Ministry of Justice.

Landssamtök lífeyrissjóða (LL)  – Andrés Þorleifsson  has been appointed as a lawyer at the Icelandic Pension Funds Association, and took up the role at the turn of the year.

Þorleifsson has worked as a lawyer at the Central Bank of Iceland and the Financial Supervisory Authority, having previously worked at the Reykjavík District Court and the Office of the Special Prosecutor, LL said.

ILX – The Amsterdam-based private credit manager has announced the appointment of Kirstine Damkjær as chief investment officer. She most recently served as UN Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director at the UN Office for Project Services, overseeing project delivery and global partnerships, and previously held senior roles including CEO of Denmark’s export credit agency EKF and global head of equity and CIO at the International Finance Corporation.

Damkjær will succeed Elvira Eurlings, who will be taking on a new role as chief capital markets & lending officer at NWB Bank.