Pictet AM, First Sentier, PGIM, Impax, SEI, IIGCC, DWS, Movestic, Velliv, Janus Henderson, PMT
Velliv – Pernille Bomholdt Henneberg has been appointed as chief economist at the Danish life and pensions firm, which is a newly-created role. She joins the firm from her most recent job as global economist at Citibank in London, where she worked for four years.
Bomholdt Henneberg has also worked for NatWest in the UK capital within Nordic rates sales, and as chief analyst in Danske Bank UK’s euro zone department, according to her LinkedIn profile. Velliv said she started in the new role on 7 November.
Asked why Velliv was adding the new role of chief economist, a spokesman for the Ballerup-based pension provider told IPE the idea was to increase the firm’s visibility in the media and among Velliv’s costumers in the investment area.
The change was also related in part to the increasing unrest in financial markets seen in 2022, which had boosted the need for continuous market communication to customers, he said.
PMT – Eunice Bronswijk will join €74bn metal scheme PMT as its new president on behalf of employees, succeeding Jos Brocken. Bronswijk, who has been a pension fund trustee on behalf of trade union FNV since 2018, will be the fund’s first female president. As of 1 January, the largest four pension funds in the Netherlands will all have a female president.
Previously, Bronswijk served as the president of the Dutch millers pension fund between 2018 and 2021. Commenting on her appointment, Bronswijk said her “passion is really with pensions”, adding: “As president I want to explain pensions to members in understandable language.”
DWS – Paul Kelly has been appointed as global head of DWS’s Є126bn alternatives franchise, which has a 50-year plus track record including particular strength in real estate (Є75bn in asset under management), infrastructure (Є16bn), liquid real assets (Є32bn) and a footprint in sustainable investments.
Stefan Hoops, chief executive officer at DWS, said: “Paul is an industry veteran with an extensive track record across private and public markets, and we are pleased to have him join DWS to lead our alternatives franchise. We expect that, despite near-term market volatility, alternatives will continue its growth trajectory, fueled by the rise in retail demand and the attractive yield opportunities presented in areas such as real assets and private credit.”
Kelly will join from Blackstone where he was a senior managing director and chief operating officer of the credit division and was a key partner in driving growth in the franchise across direct lending, insurance, and other private credit strategies. He has more than three decades of experience in finance and public and private market investing. Prior to Blackstone, he spent nearly 20 years at JPMorgan in a variety of leadership positions, and he started his career in equities trading at Bear Stearns.
Kelly will report directly to Hoops. All alternatives investment businesses will report into Kelly and together with the alternatives leadership team, he will be responsible for delivering a cohesive cross-product global strategy, and accelerating expansion of the business through organic and inorganic measures. He will join DWS in February 2023 and will be based in New York.
Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) – The group has announced the reappointment of three members to its board following its 2022 annual general meeting (AGM). The three re-elected members are Ian Simm (founder and CEO of Impax Asset Management) as treasurer, and Jelle van der Giessen (chief investment officer of NN Group) and Udo Riese (head of sustainable investing at Allianz Investment Management) as directors.
The board, comprised of asset owner and asset manager representatives with a diverse range of expertise and skills, will provide continuity and continued support to IIGCC.
SEI – Natalie Winterfrost of LawDebenture (LawDeb) has been appointed as trustee director to SEI’s master trusts, with LawDeb added to the board of the trustee company, SEI Trustees Limited. The fully independent trustee board’s directors oversee both of SEI’s master trusts.
A chartered financial analyst, Winterfrost has more than 25 years of experience in investment consulting and asset management. She has helped large pension schemes address many complex investment issues, including ESG and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
Working collaboratively with the existing trustee board, Winterfrost’s role will be fundamental in helping SEI consistently improve the retirement outcomes for the membership which continues to grow through new client wins and acquisitions.
Movestic – Marita Odélius Engström has been appointed as the newest member of the supervisory board of the Swedish pensions firm. She previously worked as CEO of Swedish pensions administration organisation Fora from 2011 until 2022, held various managerial roles at Skandia – including that of CFO – and has also worked for KPMG and Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority.
Odélius Engström also currently sits on the supervisory boards of Resurs Bank and non-life insurance company Solid.
Impax Asset Management – Karen Cockburn has been appointed as chief financial officer with effect from January 2023, when Charlie Ridge is set to step down after more than 14 years at Impax.
Having joined as CFO designate in October for a phased handover with Ridge, Cockburn will lead the finance function, including investor relations, have oversight of governance arrangements and the legal function, and will be a member of Impax’s executive committee.
Cockburn is a qualified chartered Aacountant with more than 25 years of financial and operational experience in financial services. KarenShe was transformation CFO at Virgin Money plc, focused on the integration of Virgin Money and Clydesdale Banking Group. Previously, she spent nine years at Aegon in various strategy, transformation and finance leadership roles, latterly as CFO of Cofunds.
After the handover period, Ridge will continue to support Impax as special adviser from January until December 2023.
In due course it is anticipated that Cockburn will join the Impax board as an executive director. This is expected to be following the conclusion of the firm’s annual general meeting, subject to regulatory approval.
PGIM – The $1.2trn global investment management business of Prudential Financial has expanded its global office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) with the appointment of Natalie Gill as vice president of DEI strategy and industry engagement. Effective immediately, Gill reports to Kathy Sayko, PGIM’s chief DEI officer, and is based in London.
In this newly-created role, Gill will help drive the continued evolution of PGIM’s DEI strategy, bringing best practices and innovation from across the asset management industry, financial services and DEI practitioners to inform and develop the approach. She will lead on deepening and broadening diversity partnerships both externally and internally, with a focus on the EMEA region. In addition, she will focus on developing global research and thought leadership to create positive change.
Gill joins from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation where she was head of diversity and inclusion, EMEA, responsible for designing the DEI strategy across the region. Prior to that she was an inclusion and diversity lead in the HR Culture and Inclusion team at Santander, having previously been programme director at Timewise, a gender diversity and flexible working consultancy, delivering advisory expertise on inclusive culture change to large multinational corporate clients.
First Sentier Investors (FSI) – Kate Turner has been appointed as global head of responsible investment (RI) as First Sentir also bolstered its RI team with four new appointments.
Sydney-based Turner replaces Will Oulton, who is retiring from the business at the end of the year. The new RI hires include:
Finian Power, head of ESG policy and regulation: Appointed to the role in October, Power was previously head of investment management in FSI’s Dublin office. Power now plays a leading role in developing the firm’s understanding of current and emerging ESG/sustainability policy and regulatory issues globally, drawing on more than 20 years’ experience in managing regulatory change in asset management.
Bjorn De Smedt, RI specialist: Sydney-based De Smedt is a corporate governance, climate change and sustainability specialist with more than 18 years of experience in the financial services industry and a deep knowledge of ESG data and analytics. Prior to joining FSI in October, he worked for Institutional Shareholder Services for 12 years.
Rhys Foulkes, RI specialist: Foulkes has spent the past 15 years in investment management focused on fixed income, most recently as senior credit analyst at FSI, developing a special interest in ESG. Based in London, Foulkes will transition into his new RI role in the coming year.
Belinda White, RI specialist: Sydney-based White has long been an advocate for increasing gender diversity in the workplace and championing financial gender equality, and has spent the past 20 years working in external stakeholder engagement. For the past three years, she has held the role of senior communications manager at FSI and will move into her new RI role in January 2023.
The recent additions follow on from the appointment of RI nature and biodiversity specialist Joanne Lee, based in Hong Kong earlier this year, and Sydney-based RI analyst Will Bartlett last year.
Janus Henderson Group – Michelle Dunstan has been appointed as the firm’s chief responsibility officer. Joining on 9 January 2023, Dunstan will be responsible for overseeing Janus Henderson’s corporate responsibility and responsible investing efforts. She will be based in the US and report to Ali Dibadj, Janus Henderson’s CEO.
Dunstan will work closely with Janus Henderson’s existing ESG teams to define optimal approaches and frameworks for the firm’s responsible investing and corporate responsibility efforts, drawing together and amplifying the work that Janus Henderson already does in this space.
She joins from AllianceBernstein, where she has spent the last 18 years in a variety of roles, including as global equities portfolio manager and senior research analyst, and most recently as chief responsibility officer.
Pictet Asset Management – The asset manager continues to strengthen its fixed income offering with the recruitment of four private debt specialists. The new private debt team is headed by Andreas Klein in London, who joined Pictet AM in early 2022. Klein was previously a managing director at ICG where he spent eight years helping to set up and build out the direct lending strategy.
Klein is joined in November by Axel Cordonnier and Jan Reichenbach, regional heads in the private debt team, and Christian Eckert, senior investment manager.
Cordonnier has been named head of private debt, France, and is based in Paris. Prior to Pictet AM, he was at Ares Management for over a decade where he was a principal in the firm’s private debt investment team.
Reichenbach is head of private debt for the DACH (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) region. He was previously a managing director and head of DACH and NL private debt at Muzinich where he established and grew the firm’s mid-market direct lending platform for German-speaking Europe as well as for the Netherlands. He is based in Frankfurt.
Reichenbach will be joined in Frankfurt by Eckert,senior investment manager, who will support sourcing and execution in the DACH region. Previously, Eckert worked for NIBC Bank in Frankfurtin the leveraged finance team.
The Pictet AM’s private debt team will draw on the firm’s global infrastructure and investment resources. A new direct lending fund, which will focus on corporate-lending in the lower mid-market segment, will launch externally in early 2023.
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