National Employment Savings Trust, Candriam Investors Group, Hermes Investment Management, Ortec Finance, Mirae Asset Global Investments, Legal & General Investment Management, Ambienta SGR, Indexx Markets, Barnett Waddingham, Aberdeen Asset Management

National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) – Chief executive Tim Jones is to stand down at the end of the year after eight years in charge of the auto-enrolment vehicle. Jones was appointed in October 2007 as head of the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority (PADA), the government body charged with delivering NEST – an auto-enrolment master trust. PADA was renamed NEST in the build-up to auto-enrolment. The organisation said it was commencing its recruitment drive for a successor immediately and hoped to have someone in place by the time Jones steps down.

Candriam Investors GroupMatthieu David has been appointed head of Italy, responsible for consolidating the asset manager’s presence in the pension fund and institutional mandates sector. He joins from BNP Paribas Investment Partners, where he was the director of external distribution in Italy. Before then, he held the position of senior client relationship manager at Fortis Investments Management Italia and, prior to that, spent more than 10 years with AXA Group in Italy.

Hermes Investment ManagementEoin Murray has been appointed head of Hermes Investment Office, responsible for issuing the ‘kitemark’ given to all new investment strategies. He joins from GSA Capital Partners and previously served as CIO at Old Mutual. He has also held senior positions at Callanish Capital Partners LLP and Northern Trust Global Investments.

Ortec FinanceTwan Possen has started at Ortec Finance as a senior consultant on pensions and insurance risk management. Previously, he worked at Aegon Asset Management as a senior consultant for investment solutions for three years, after working for a similar period at Ortec Finance as asset-liability specialist for insurers.

Mirae Asset Global InvestmentsSander van Ouwerkerk has been appointed head of Benelux and Nordic sales. Based in London, he will target a range of institutional, wealth management, fund of fund and private bank clients. Van Ouwerkerk joined Acadian Asset Management in 2011 as vice-president and director of business development. Before then, he worked at Dimensional Fund Advisers, where he was an institutional client manager.

Legal & General Investment ManagementOmar Saeed has been appointed senior portfolio manager within the global fixed income team. He joins from Zurich-based Swisscanto Asset Management, where he managed high-yield funds and absolute return portfolios. Before then, he held positions at Western Asset Management, F&C Asset Management, Standard & Poor’s and Habib Bank.

Ambienta SGRNico Helling has been appointed a partner in Germany. He joins from Vorndran Mannheims Capital Advisors, a European mid-market fund, where he was a partner. Before then, he spent 10 years at Montagu Private Equity, where he was responsible for the investment business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as Poland and Eastern Europe.

Indexx Markets – The managed indices provider has appointed Steve Thomas and Simon Brickles as non-executive directors. They join the board with immediate effect. Thomas is professor of finance at Cass Business School, while Brickles was head of AIM at the London Stock Exchange from 1994 until 2003.

Barnett WaddinghamPete Smith has been appointed to the investment consulting team as the company expands in Scotland. Based in Glasgow, he joins from Aon Hewitt’s investment consulting business.

Aberdeen Asset ManagementMike Brooks has been appointed co-head of Diversified Growth along with Mike Turner. Brooks joins from Baillie Gifford, where he was the co-founder and an investment manager on the Baillie Gifford Diversified Growth Fund.