ATP, Nordea Asset Management, PFA, AFG, Rothschild & Cie Gestion, Russell Investments, Pemberton, GE Capital International

ATP – Denmark’s statutory pension fund has poached the head of Nordea Asset Management, Christian Hydahl, to step into the shoes of chief executive Carsten Stendevad, who is leaving at the end of this year to return to the US for family reasons. Hydahl was promoted within Nordea to become head of the asset management division in January 2015, filling the gap left by Allan Polack, who was leaving to become chief executive of the country’s biggest commercial pensions provider PFA.

PFANina Groth has been appointed as a director at Denmark’s PFA, with responsibility for client and pension service activities. She comes to the pension provider from banking group Nordea, where she was head of retail operations. At PFA, she will head up administration and operations, including pension payments, agreements and development work. She will take up her new role on 2 January 2017.

AFG – The French asset management association has appointed Jean-Louis Laurens as its ambassador. The role is about promoting French asset management within professional bodies and to major international investors. Laurens takes on the assignment after having been the managing partner and chairman of the management committee of Rothschild & Cie Gestion since 2009, when he became the worldwide head of the group’s asset management activities. He is the former deputy chief executive at AXA Investment Managers and was also chairman and chief executive at AXA IM France, Benelux, Italy and Spain. Before AXA, he was at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson, Morgan Stanley and HSBC, in that order.

Russell InvestmentsMirjam Klijnsma has been appointed head of implementation services for the EMEA region. She has been with Russell since Feb 2008, most recently as director of transition management for the EMEA. Her previous experience includes working for NN Investment Partners has head of fixed income and derivatives trading.

PembertonNicole Gates has been appointed as a partner and deputy credit officer. Prior to joining Pemberton, Gates spent 10 years at GE Capital International, where she was head of restructuring. Before then, she held positions at Dresdner Bank and Kleinwort Benson.