Friday people roundup

Pension Protection Fund Ombudsman, ING Pension Fund,  F&C Investments, GoldenTree Asset Management, Landmark Partners, LawDeb Pension Trustees, Towers Watson, Queensland Investment Corporation

Pension Protection Fund (PPF) and Pensions Ombudsman – Anthony Arter has been appointed the new UK ombudsman after receiving endoresment from the parliamentary committee for work and pensions. The cross-party bench of MPs questioned Arter on 11 February before approving the appointment. Arter was the preferred candidate put forward by the Department for Work and Pensions. He retired as senior partner from law firm Eversheds in April 2014, but remained a consultant. He was also an independent trustee, having advised the pension schemes for British Airways and the Railways Pension Scheme (RPMI). He replaces Tony King who will step down later this year.

ING Pension Fund – Corné van Nijhuis, chief executive of the €25bn scheme, has departed after only eight months in the role. He was hired in April last year to succeed Daan Heijting, who joined Timeos.

F&C Investments — Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is to act as president of F&C Investments’ new Responsible Investment Advisory Council, which will advise the firm on ethical and sustainability criteria for its Responsible Fund products. The five other members of the new council are Howard Pearce, Rosey Hurst, Annemieke Wijn, Ylva Lindberg and Martin Smith. Pearce is chair of the council, as announced last October, and was previously head of pension fund management for the Environment Agency Pension Fund. Hurst was a founder member of responsible supply chain initiative Sedex. Wijn, meanwhile, is on the board of non-governmental organisation the Rainforest Alliance. Lindberg was a member of the Council on Ethics for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global for five years, and Smith is currently part of F&C’s executive management committee and head of product management.

GoldenTree Asset Management — Dean Merritt has joined GoldenTree Asset Management as partner, leading European restructurings and turnarounds. He comes to the firm from Talbot Hughes McKillop where he was a partner. Merritt will work closely with Ted Lodge, global head of restructurings and turnarounds, the firm said.

Landmark Partners — James Clarke has been hired by Landmark Partners as director of investor relations, to be based at the firm’s New York City office. He will report to Geoffrey Mullen, managing director of investor relations and business development. Clarke will be mainly in charge of the eastern region of the US and ongoing business development of the firm, Landmark Partners said. He was previously managing director of business development at Golden Tree Asset Management, and before that senior vice president at Paulson and Co.

LawDeb Pension Trustees — Vicky Paramour is joining the LawDeb Pension Trustees team. She was previously at EY for four years, where her role included advising companies on funding negotiations. Before that she was senior consultant at Towers Watson.

Towers Watson — Sharmila Nebhrajani and Russell Picot are joining the board of Towers Watson’s master trust LifeSight, as the first two trustees on the board. The board is chaired by Donald Brydon. Nebhrajani is currently chair of the Human Tissue Authority, as well as being non-executive director and chair of the risk and audit committee of the Pension Protection Fund. She previously worked for a decade at the BBC as chief operating officer and finance director of the corporation’s Future Media & Technology division. Picot is group chief accounting officer for HSBC, having previously been a trustee of the HSBC UK Pension Scheme, where he chaired the audit & risk committee. Brydon is chair of Royal Mail and Sage and was previously chair and chief executive of AXA Investment Managers.

Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) – Paul Costello has been announced as independent chairman for QIC’s global infrastructure investment committee. Costello was the inaugural CEO of Australia’s Future Fund and the first CEO of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund. He joined the investment manager in late 2014. The committee includes members of QIC’s global infrastructure team, founders Ross Israel and Matina Papathanasiou, two partners on a rotating basis, and fellow independent Peter Forbes.