People moves: UK’s People’s Partnership names fixed income co-head

People’s Partnership – The provider of the People’s Pension to 7.2 million members has bolstered its investment team with the appointment of Daniel Spencer as co-head of fixed income.

Spencer, who will work alongside fellow co-head Charlotte Vincent, brings extensive experience in portfolio management, local government pension scheme (LGPS) pensions and asset management to People’s Pension, which holds more than £45bn in assets under management.

Spencer joins from Brunel Pensions Partnership, where he spent eight years as a portfolio manager, leading a multi-billion-pound multi-asset credit portfolio as well as an emerging markets equity fund. With almost 20 years of investment management experience, he has extensive expertise in manager selection, portfolio construction, strategic asset allocation, and risk modelling.

Aberdeen – Torbjörn Magnusson will join the firm’s board as a non-executive director and chair-designate. He will become chair of the board following relevant regulatory approvals, Aberdeen disclosed.

This follows the firm’s announcement last year that Douglas Flint would stand down as chair by the 2026 annual general meeting. Since then, Jonathan Asquith has served as interim chair and will continue in the role until Magnusson’s appointment as chair takes effect.

The appointment concludes a rigorous search process that considered a wide range of candidates with diverse experience, according to Aberdeen.

Magnusson has a particularly strong track record of delivering growth and creating shareholder value over many years in businesses serving personal and corporate customers. He knows the opportunities and challenges emerging from the fast-changing dynamics of the financial services industry. He also understands the complex stakeholder environment of running a modern listed company and has direct experience of working in the UK regulatory framework, the firm stated.

Magnusson serves as a non-executive director of Canopius Group. He recently stepped down as a non-executive director of Hastings Group, where he was previously chair.

PGIM – The global asset management business of Prudential Financial has appointed Robert Scheer as head of direct lending, DACH.

Based in Frankfurt, Scheer will lead the firm’s sponsor-led direct lending activity with responsibility for originating, structuring, negotiating and underwriting transactions across the DACH region. In this newly created role, he will report to Matt Harvey, global head of middle market direct lending at PGIM.

Scheer joins from M&G Investments, where he served as co-head of private credit origination, leading sponsor-led mid-market activity and cross-border deal teams across London, Frankfurt and Amsterdam. He was previously head of direct lending for the DACH region at M&G, where he was instrumental in building the firm’s private credit origination business in Germany and the Netherlands from the ground up.

Independent Governance Group (IGG) – The group has appointed Andrew McIlhinney as trustee director.

McIlhinney joins from law firm DLA Piper, where he led the firm’s Yorkshire pensions practice. A lawyer by background, he has spent his career advising trustees and corporates on all aspects of pensions law. He is a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales and a longstanding member of the Association of Pension Lawyers.

McIlhinney will be based in IGG’s Manchester office, bringing strong connections across the North West, Yorkshire and beyond to a team supporting a growing client base in the region.

The appointment comes in response to growing client demand for professional trustees with legal expertise, with pension schemes operating in an increasingly complex regulatory environment, and stronger scheme funding meaning more complex long-term strategic choices they must navigate, IIG stated.

Aon – Alice Wilmot has been named as leader of the consultancy’s employer covenant team within its UK retirement practice.

Wilmot takes over from Alex Beecraft, who will continue to support his existing clients and work on more specialist covenant areas, while taking on wider responsibilities within the retirement practice.

Wilmot joined Aon’s covenant team in 2024 and has advised trustees and corporates on covenant issues for over 13 years. She has worked across a broad range of high-profile assignments, supporting clients through mergers and acquisitions, stressed funding scenarios and evolving regulatory expectations. She also undertook a case manager secondment to the Pension Regulator’s anti-avoidance team in 2018, focusing on the use of moral hazard powers.

M&G Investments – Jen Braswell has been named as global head of impact for the firm’s £83bn private markets business – a newly created role designed to accelerate the growth of its impact platform.

Reporting to Emmanuel Deblanc, private markets CIO, Barwell will be responsible for enhancing collaboration and strengthening M&G’s ability to originate, manage and scale impact investments for institutional investors. Working with the investment teams, she will drive product innovation and strategic partnerships, while advancing M&G’s approach to impact assessment, measurement and governance.

Prior to joining M&G, Braswell was managing director of global impact at EQT, where she led the development of impact investing strategies across private equity, infrastructure, growth and venture investing. Earlier in her career, she held senior leadership roles at British International Investment, including leading value creation initiatives within its impact group. She brings nearly 30 years of experience across private capital, impact investing and sustainable finance in developed and emerging markets.

Since January 2026, Braswell has served as senior impact advisor to responsAbility, helping to enhance its specialist capabilities across M&G’s private markets platform and scale M&G’s impact offering for clients. In her new role, she will continue to advise the responsAbility executive management team on impact-related topics.

Canada Life – Mark Fenlon has been named as operations director for bulk purchase annuities (BPA). He joins Canada Life’s BPA senior leadership team, reporting to BPA managing director Dominic Moret.

In this role, Fenlon will drive forward Canada Life’s BPA operations strategy, delivering services and propositions that underpin the business’s commitment to operational excellence during the buy-in to buyout journey and the experience provided to members throughout and beyond the transfer process.

Fenlon joins from Standard Life, where he was director of client services, annuities. He has also held senior operational and actuarial roles at Aviva and Legal & General.