People moves: PFA names chief strategist; LPFA adds trustees [updated]

PFA Pension, Velliv, LPFA, Morgan Stanley, CalPERS, Kames Capital, Artemis, Janus Henderson, compenswiss, Unigestion, BNP Paribas AM, Ossiam 

PFA – Tine Choi Danielsen has been appointed as the new chief strategist at PFA, replacing Henrik Henriksen , who is about to start work at Velliv – formerly Nordea Liv & Pension Denmark – in a similar role.

Danielsen comes to PFA from Danske Bank , where she was chief strategist, head of strategy and macro within the wealth management division. Before that, Danielsen, who lives in Malmö, worked in similar roles as senior strategist and head of analysis at both Nordea and Nykredit.

London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) – The £5.6bn (€6.3bn) pension scheme has appointed Tony Newman and Ruth Dombey to its trustee board. The pair are councillors for the London boroughs of Croydon and Sutton, respectively. Their appointments are effective immediately and will run until 31 December 2022.

Newman was elected leader of Croydon Council in 2014, and LPFA highlighted his “extensive” experience local investment and regeneration. Dombey has led Sutton Council since 2012, and is also a vice chair of London Councils – which set up the London CIV asset pooling vehicle – as well as a deputy chair of the Local Government Association. 

LPFA chairman Sir Merrick Cockell said the appointments “further enhance the breadth and depth of knowledge of our trustee board, particularly in the critical areas of local housing and regeneration, which are areas of investment interest for the LPFA board”.

Kames Capital – Kames, part of Aegon Asset Management, has reshuffled its fixed income team after a number of its staff moved to rival investment house Artemis . Stephen Snowden , Kames’ co-head of fixed income, head of high yield David Ennett , and fund managers Stephen Baines and Juan Valenzuela are all to join UK-based Artemis in the new year.

Adrian Hull , previously co-head of fixed income alongside Snowden, has taken sole responsibility for the fixed income team, Kames said in a statement. The company also named new co-managers to several of its bond funds, but said there would be no changes to investment processes or strategies.

Artemis confirmed the moves but declined to provide more details of their future roles as the quartet were still under contract at Kames.

Kames CIO Stephen Jones said: “We operate in a very competitive market, one where we have seen a good degree of change recently across the whole sector. We are not immune and while it is always disappointing to lose members of the team, it allows us to promote from within and refresh and recruit where appropriate and necessary.

“I would underline that at Kames we operate a team based approach with a long-standing, tried-and-tested investment process across all asset classes with significant resource directed to fixed income where we remain committed to the market.”

Janus Henderson Investors – Michael Ho is to join the €325.5bn asset manager as global head of multi-asset and alternatives. He is due to start work on 14 January, and will lead Janus Henderson’s asset allocation, multi-strategy and alternatives teams.

He joins from UBS Asset Management where he was CIO of investment solutions. He previously worked at State Street Global Advisors as CIO for alternatives, global macro and active emerging market equities for five years. He is also a former CIO of Mellon Capital Management.

compenswiss – Beat Schwaller has been elected to the board of directors as a representative of trade union travail.suisse . He replaces Adrian Wüthrich , who resigned from the board of directors after being elected a member of parliament.

Unigestion – The Swiss asset manager has hired Dominik Kremer from Columbia Threadneedle Investments as head of business development. At his previous employer he was head of institutional and co-head of distribution, and has also held senior roles at Fidelity and Pioneer Investments.

Kremer is due to start his new role on 1 February and will be based in London and Geneva.

BNP Paribas Asset Management – Franck Nicolas has been named senior client solution manager within its multi-asset, quantitative and solutions investment team, which provides multi-asset, fiduciary and liability-driven investment services.

Nicolas joined last month from Natixis Asset Management where he was head of the investment and client solutions team, and he has also led Natixis’ global allocation and asset-liability matching department, and its economic research and strategy team. 

Ossiam – The smart beta specialist has appointed Aous Labbane , head of business development, and Alexandre Duriez , co-head of investment management and research, as partners in the company.

Labbane, formerly of Credit Suisse, has led Ossiam’s business development since the start of 2018, while Duriez shares leadership of the investment and research team with Tristan Perret, having joined Ossiam in May from Barclays Investment Bank. 

Morgan Stanley – Ted Eliopoulos, the former chief investment officer of CalPERS, the largest US public pension fund, is to join Morgan Stanley as vice chairman of investment management and head of strategic partnerships, based in New York. He will report to Dan Simkowitz, head of investment management, and will also join the operating committee, co-chair Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s sustainable investing council and sit on investment committees across the business.

Eliopoulos is also a member of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s Investor Advisory Group and was previously chair of the Pension Real Estate Association.