Kempen Capital Management – The €46bn asset manager has hired Richard Jacobs, Sven Smeets, Edzard Potgieser, and Bram Bikker from Swiss fiduciary group Altis Investment Management. They join from Altis’ 16-strong leadership team.

Jacobs and Smeets were managing directors at Altis. Potgieser was senior portfolio manager for alternative investments. Bikker was head of equity and fixed income, responsible for beta and factor investment strategies. Altis runs €45bn in assets and is part of Dutch NN Group. The appointments follow in particular Kempen’s increased focus on fiduciary management. The company said it also wanted to create private markets solutions as well as to further innovate on external manager selection.

RPMI Railpen – The UK’s £25bn (€29bn) Railways Pension Scheme has appointed Julian Cripps as managing director of investment business, a new role from which he will lead RPMI Railpen, the scheme’s in-house investment manager. Cripps has been chief operating officer for investments at RPMI since 2015, but “now takes a wider role in leading the business in its vision to be a world-class asset owner”, RPMI said in a statement.

RPMI Railpen’s three investment directors – Ciarán Barr, Paul Bishop, and Richard Williams – now report to Cripps, who in turn reports to Chris Hitchen, CEO of RPMI. Cripps has also been appointed to the RPMI board as an executive director of the company. RPMI oversees administration and operations of the pension scheme.

Two other non-executive board appointments were announced: Joining the RPMI board is Richard Jones, who is a director of RPMI’s parent, the Railways Pension Trustee Company Limited (RPTCL). Joining the board of RPMI Railpen is John Chilman, who is group pensions director at FirstGroup plc and chair of RPTCL.

Allianz Global InvestorsArne Tölsner has been appointed head of institutional for Germany and Austria, with responsibility for leading sales and client account management for institutional clients in these countries and occupational pension providers. Tölsner has been at Allianz GI since 2001, having most recently been global head of product specialists. He started in his new role at the beginning of January. 

Hermes Investment Management – The £28.6 billion manager has appointed Douglas Anderson as head of consultant relations. Based in London, Douglas will report into Mark Miller, head of UK, Middle East, and North Africa institutional, and will be responsible for the development and maintenance of relationships with UK and European based consultants. Douglas joined Hermes from Lazard Asset Management, where was head of consultant relations. Before Lazard he worked at Capital International, Bacon & Woodrow (now Aon Hewitt) and Hymans Robertson.

Columbia ThreadneedleUlrik Holm Oxfeldt joined the asset manager as head of Nordics on 1 February 2017. He will lead Columbia Threadneedle’s sales and client relationships in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. Holm Oxfeldt has previously worked in business development and senior client-facing positions at PFA Asset Management, SEB, Nordea and ABN AMRO. 

Quaero CapitalAmancio Perez has been appointed head of Iberian business development, a new role aimed at growing the fund manager’s presence in Spain, Portugal, and Andorra. The company also plans to hire a representative for Latin America. Perez was previously a senior sales manager at Pictet & Cie.

Insight Investment – The investment manager has expanded its emerging market debt team team with the appointment of Darren Louis as portfolio manager. Louis reports directly to Colm McDonagh, head of emerging markets. He joins from Morgan Stanley, having previously also worked for Deutsche Bank and UBS.  

MSCIPeter Zangari has been named global head of research and product development and the data provider. He joined from Goldman Sachs in 2011, initially taking the role of head of equity analytics. Jorge Mina will succeed Zangari as head of analytics.

Remy Briand, head of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and real estate, has given up his research responsibilities to focus on product development. Briand was the “architect of the ESG product line”, MSCI said.