Elo, BNP Paribas, Achmea Bank, MPD, REYL & Cie, F&C Investments, Waverton Investment Management

EloSatu Huber is to replace Lasse Heiniö as chief executive of the Finnish mutual pension insurer at the start of June. Huber is currently deputy and will move into the chief executive position as per an agreement made when Elo was formed via the merger of Pension Fennia and Local Tapiola in 2013. Heiniö will continue as an adviser to the board until the end of the year. The Elo board, which will not be chaired by Huber, is made up of Matti Carpén, Hanna Hiidenpalo, Mikko Karpoja, Erja Ketkon, Sarianne Kirvesmäki, Keijo Kouvonen and Hilkka Malinen, who has joined as vice-president of HR.

BNP ParibasRobert van Kerkhoff has been appointed head of BNP Paribas Securities Services in the Netherlands. He has served as the company’s deputy head of operations at Asset & Fund Services in Paris, as well as Madrid-based COO of the Spanish branch of Fortis Bank. Separately, BNP Paribas appointed Ronald Koelewijn as head of sales in the Netherlands, responsible for business development within all client segments. Koelewijn has worked as manager of Global Client Development Netherlands & Scandinavia for banks and brokers. Meanwhile, Erwin Reyes has become secretary general at BNP Paribas Securities Services in the Netherlands. He will lead the internal organisation as well as projects.

Achmea BankPetri Hofsté has been appointed chair of the supervisory board (RvC) of Achmea Bank. She has been a member of the executive board at Royal Bank of Scotland and the €424bn asset manager and pensions provider APG, as well as director at ABN Amro Bank. Before then, she served as supervisory director at regulator De Nederlandsche Bank. At Achmea Bank, Hofsté succeeds Erik van de Merwe, who stepped down after completing his maximum tenure of 12 years. Van de Merwe remains chairman of the RvC at Achmea.

MPDFelix Sprooten has been appointed head of board matters at Media Pensioen Diensten, the pensions provider of the €5.3bn industry-wide scheme PNO Media in the Netherlands. Since 2011, he has served as senior board secretary and deputy director of the pension bureau of PNO Media. Before then, he was board secretary of the pension fund of industrial conglomerate Stork, which merged with the €43bn metal scheme PME. Sprooten has also been a board member at PME, representing the employer.

REYL & CieCédric Özazman has been appointed head of investments and portfolio management. Özazman has been a senior member of the bank’s Investments team for more than five years. The bank has separated the position of chief strategist, which will continue to be performed by François Savary, from that of head of portfolio management for private clients. Savary also manages the bank’s Asset Services business line, intended for the institutional market and launched by REYL & Cie at the start of 2015.

F&C Investments – The company has made three appointments to its European Distribution team: Robert Elfström, Frank Steffen and Carolin Töpfer. Elfström joins in the newly created role of director for the Nordic Region, where he will be managing new and existing wholesale and institutional client relationships. He previously worked at Franklin Templeton Investments, where he was a sales director for the Nordic region. Steffen joins as a senior sales director in the Wholesale Distribution team, based in Munich. He was previously at BlackRock Investment Management in Germany, where he was a sales director for wholesale and strategic clients. Töpfer joins as sales support, based in Munich.

Waverton Investment Management ­– Andrew Fleming has been appointed chief executive. He will start in his new position on 1 July, pending regulatory approval. He replaces Hugh Grootenhuis, who is stepping down as chief executive, a position he has held since June 2009. Fleming was most recently chief executive at Cumulus Group. From 2005 to 2013, he was chief executive and CIO at Aegon Asset Management (rebranded as Kames Capital in 2012). He began his career at Gartmore Investment Management.

DIAM – DIAM International, the UK arm of Asian asset manager DIAM Group, has appointed Hidetoshi Yanagihara and Eiichi Watatani as chief executive and CIO respectively. Yanagihara has been group leader of the Corporate Planning Group of DIAM in Tokyo since 2011. Before then, he was deputy general manager of the Mizuho Corporate Bank New York Americas Treasury Department. Watatani has been with the DIAM Group for 13 years and joins DIAM International as CIO from his previous role as executive vice-president of DIAM USA.