People moves: UK pensions regulator adds to senior team

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) – The UK regulator is strengthening its senior team with the appointment of Richard Knox as its executive director, strategy, policy and analysis, and as a member of the TPR board, effective February 2026.

This appointment marks a significant step in TPR’s transformation to meet the challenges of a rapidly evolving pensions landscape, it stated.

Knox brings more than two decades of experience in financial services regulation and public policy. At HM Treasury, he currently serves as co-director of the Financial Services Group, where he has overseen international financial services policy, Brexit negotiations, global trade agreements, and regulatory frameworks for capital markets, ESG finance, and prudential banking.

Previously, Knox led EU negotiations on major legislative files such as EMIR and MiFID as deputy director for securities and markets. During the financial crisis, he contributed to the Asset Protection Scheme for RBS, as well as the Comprehensive Spending Review early in his career.

Most recently, Knox directed the multi-agency team that delivered the Pensions Investment Review following the 2024 election, collaborating across TPR, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and the Bank of England.

SH Pension – Annelie Helsing is leaving her role as chief executive officer of the Swedish pension fund, SH Pension’s board announced. She is being replaced by Carl Lybeck as acting CEO, it said, adding that the work of recruiting a permanent new CEO had begun.

Helsing said it had been a privilege to lead SH Pension for almost six years “during an important and developing period – from a pension fund to a modern occupational pension association”, but said she had come to the conclusion that now was the right time to hand over the baton.

Lybeck is currently a board member and vice chair of SH Pension, which had SEK7.1bn (€660m) in total assets at the end of June 2025. Until December, he was head of business-to-business at ICA Banken, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Back in September, SH Pension announced it had hired Kenneth Norling as its new chief investment officer; he was to take over Christian Ragnartz, who had been interim CIO.

Apollo – Jesal Mistry has joined the firm as a managing director and defined contribution (DC) lead for the UK.

In this newly created role, Mistry will drive the growth of Apollo’s DC business in the UK and Europe, helping to make the firm’s investment capabilities and leading product suite available to the full breadth of the DC ecosystem, including trustees, consultants and platform providers.

Based in London, Mistry will sit within the DC team in Apollo’s new markets business, which is led by partners and co-heads Neil Mehta and Jon Godsall.

Mistry is an industry leader in UK DC with more than two decades of experience. He joins from Legal & General, where he was head of DC investment, which included most recently leading the launch of the firm’s private markets offerings for DC.

Federated Hermes – R.J. Gallo, senior vice president and deputy CIO for global fixed income and co-head of the Municipal Bond Group, will become CIO for global fixed income at Federated Hermes.

He succeeds Robert Ostrowski, executive vice president and current CIO for global fixed income.

As CIO, Gallo will oversee all aspects of Federated Hermes’ investment processes across fixed income products globally, which represent $101.8bn in assets as of 30 September 2025. He will also be responsible for developing investment teams, as well as overseeing portfolios and risk management.

Gallo joined Federated Hermes in 2000 and has 31 years of investment experience. Prior to joining Federated Hermes in 2000, he was a financial analyst and trader at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Additionally, Ann Ferentino, senior portfolio manager and co-head of Federated Hermes’ Municipal Bond Group, will become the sole head of the group.

Ferentino will become the sole head of the Municipal Bond Group. In this role, she will assume full oversight for Federated Hermes’ municipal managed assets, which total $7.1bn as of 30 September 2025. She has been with Federated Hermes for 30 years and continues to manage seven mutual funds and other client portfolios.

The moves become effective with Ostrowski’s retirement on 1 May 2026, and are part of Federated Hermes’ long-term succession plan.

University of Cambridge – Dominic Burke has been appointed systemic stewardship lead for the University of Cambridge, leading the university’s pension schemes’ approach to systemic stewardship and sustainable investment, with a focus on climate change as a systemic risk.

Burke was most recently principal consultant at Capital Stewardship Strategies. Before that, he spent over six years as director of sustainable investment at the Lankelly Chase Foundation and as an independent advisor to several charitable endowments.

Earlier in his career, Burke worked in investment management and stewardship at Sarasin and Partners and Hermes Investment Management. He is currently on the advisory board of Arkadiko Partners.

Alecta – David Bergstrand is the new head of the actuarial function at Alecta. He was previously responsible for the actuarial function at Nordnet Pensionsförsäkring and has also worked as an actuary at Folksam and SEB Pension and Insurance.

“David is a knowledgeable actuary with extensive experience in our industry. In this important role, he will contribute to making Alecta a safer and better company for our customers,” said Peder Hasslev, CEO of Alecta.

Portfolio Thinking – Dan Kemp, the former Morningstar chief research and information officer, has launched an investment consultancy and AI-enabled research platform for modern advice firms.

The firm bridges the gap between boutique advice and institutional scale, enabling advice firms, family offices and institutions to build robust, disciplined investment propositions without the overheads of an in-house investment team, it stated. 

It is built on the belief that “investing is not about prediction, but preparation”, the firm noted. It focuses on the decisions that determine long-term outcomes (portfolio construction, valuation discipline and behaviour through market cycles) and on ensuring those decisions remain robust as firms grow, it added.