Ross Trustees, Kempen Capital Management, BMO Global Asset Management, BNP Paribas Asset Management, Arabesque, Chronos Sustainability, Triple Point Investment Manager, First Sentier Investors, Aviva Investors, Groupama Asset Management

Ross Trustees – Geoff McKenzie has been appointed senior trustee manager at the UK professional trustee and pensions services firm. He joins from Clarks, where he was the shoe company’s director of global pensions. He has also had senior in-house roles with other brands such as Vodafone and Barclays.

Ross Trustees said he has considerable experience across a broad range of areas, including managing the merging and restructuring of pension schemes within benefits packages, outsourcing scheme administration and developing and executing member communications programmes.

McKenzie said: “Ross Trustees enjoys a terrific reputation as one of the leading providers of professional pension trusteeship and associated services in the market. There is a growing need for expert professional trusteeship and outsourced pension management services and I look forward to bringing my insights to help support the firm’s clients.”

Kempen Capital Management – The asset manager has hired Robert Leenes and Paul van Homelen to service its Dutch pension fund clients.

Leenes, who joins from TKP Investment, where he was head of fiduciary clients, will become executive director of Kempen’s wholesale and institutional clients team. Van Homelen was account CIO at Robeco when it ceased its fiduciary management activities last year. His new role will be similar to the one he had at Robeco, as he will be responsible for client contacts within Kempen’s fiduciary management team.

Commenting on the appointments, Kempen’s head of fiduciary management Wilse Graveland said they were part of the firm’s ambition to increase its fiduciary client base in the Netherlands “as well as in the area of asset class-specific solutions”.

BMO Global Asset Management (BMO GAM) – The asset manager has strengthened its fiduciary managment team in the Netherlands. Justus van Halewijn has been hired as senior delegated CIO, to be the first point of contact for investment advice for fiduciary clients. Martina Korudova has also joined the team, as portfolio manager, multi-management.

Van Halewijn was most recently director of asset management at Dutch pension fund administrator SPF Beheer and, prior to this, head of investment strategy at Blue Sky Group and head of investment management at Achmea.

Rogier van Harten, managing director, Netherlands and head of institutional clients, Europe, said: “These appointments underline our ambition to grow even more in the fiduciary market and expand our strong position.”

Hymans Robertson – The pensions consultancy has promoted Kieran Mistry to head of non-traditional risk transfer, a new role.

It will see Mistry leading the firm’s advisory service supporting DB pension scheme trustees and sponsors considering new and emerging risk transfer options, including superfunds, capital backed solutions and alternative insurance products. Mistry has been with Hymans since 2014 and has increasingly focused on supporting schemes considering emerging solutions, including early superfund candidates.

“We’ve seen rapid growth in the number of risk transfer options available over recent years,” said Mistry. “This innovation is certainly timely, adding valuable tools to help trustees and sponsors looking to manage risk against an historically tough economic backdrop.” 

BNP Paribas Asset Management (BNPP AM) – Sandro Pierri has been named deputy CEO with effect from 1 January 2021. This is in addition to his role as head of BNPP AM’s global client group, which he has held since 2017. Sandro is based in London and reports to Frédéric Janbon, CEO of BNPP AM.

“Sandro has transformed our global client group into an efficient sales platform for BNPP AM. In expanding his responsibilities, he will bring his invaluable expertise to additional transversal projects,” said Janbon. 

Before joining BNPP AM, Pierri had been at Pioneer Investments, becoming CEO in 2012.

Groupama Asset Management – The French asset manager has recruited Muriel Heitzmann as director of ALM investments, responsible for asset management dedicated to insurers. She also joined the management committee team.

Heitzmann has more than 20 years of experience in the asset management industry, having held senior positions at Sinopia Asset Management, which was absorbed by HSBC Global Asset Management, until 2016. In 2017, she joined major social protection group AG2R La Mondiale, where she was head of front office and financial engineering in the investments and financing department. In this capacity she was also a member of the management board of AG2R La Mondiale Gestion d’Actifs.

Arabesque – Daniel Klier, now ex-global head of sustainable finance at HSBC, will be joining AI and financial technology firm Arabesque as group president and CEO of Arabesque S-Ray GmbH, effective in June 2021.

Established in 2013, Arabesque is chaired by former UN director Georg Kell and aims to provide radical transparency through technology on how the world’s biggest companies are performing on climate change and social issues. It has strategic partnerships with shareholders including Allianz X, DWS Group, and the German federal state of Hessen.

Klier will lead the expansion of Arabesque S-Ray’s ESG data, advisory and research services worldwide and also scale up Arabesque’s global group business. 

Kell said: “Technology is revolutionising sustainable investment, and democratising finance as a force for good to shape a more prosperous future for our society and the planet. I am thrilled to welcome Daniel to Arabesque, and believe that by adding his experience, leadership and vision to the team, we could not be better placed to meet our mission of mainstreaming sustainability across capital markets.”

Klier joined HSBC in 2013 as group head of strategy in London. From 2017 he carried out the role of global head of sustainable finance. He has also chaired various influential groups on sustainable finance, including the Bank of England climate risk working group, the Institute of International Finance sustainable finance working group, and the UK Finance Sustainability Committee. Before joining HSBC, he was a partner at McKinsey & Company.

Chronos Sustainability – Michal Nachmany will be working with the sustainability advisory firm as climate policy specialist. A respected authority on global climate legislation, policy and the low carbon transition, she joins Chronos’ advisory network following an academic career at the London School of Economics.

During her tenure at the LSE, Nachmany led the development of Climate Change Laws of the World, the most comprehensive knowledge resource on global climate change legislation. She is also a principal advisor to Climate Action 100+ and the Transition Pathway Initiative. She is currently visiting policy fellow at the LSE and in February 2021, she founded Climate Policy Radar, a groundbreaking project to map and analyse the global climate policy landscape through digital technology and artificial intelligence.

Rory Sullivan, CEO, Chronos Sustainability, said: “Climate policy and legislation are the next frontiers in the global climate change landscape and in the race to net zero. Michal is quite simply one of the most informed, dynamic and motivated climate change specialists in the world. Her expertise and knowledge will significantly enhance the quality and the depth of the climate change advice we provide to our investment clients.” 

Triple Point Investment Manager – Lindsay Smart has been appointed as head of sustainabiity to enhance the firm’s commmitment to ESG and impact investing. 

According to Triple Point, Smart has more than 15 years’ experience of ESG in the financial sector. Since 2011, she has held senior positions at organisations including ESG assessment data provider Vigeo Eiris and, most recently, ClearlySo, an impact investment bank where she was head of impact research and innovation.

Founded in 2004, Triple Point manages over £1.8bn (€2.1bn) of private, institutional and public capital.

First Sentier Investors (FSI) – Sophie Durham has joined the London team in the newly-created role of ESG director. She was previously at Kosmos Energy, a listed oil and gas company where she was responsible for climate change and global public policy, reporting to the CEO and Board.

Ilona Kriksciunaite also recently joined the London team as executive, having been at Nuveen Real Estate for five years. Moritz Lindhorst joined FSI in November 2020 as senior executive, based in London. He spent four years at CPPIB, where he was a member of the infrastructure and European credit teams and before that, was a member of the transport and infrastructure group at Morgan Stanley’s investment banking division.

Aviva Investors – Charles Herriott and Andrea Pelizzari have joined the manager’s infrastructure equity team. 

Before joining Aviva, Herriott was senior asset manager at Triple Point Investment Management, where he was responsible for the infrastructure and energy asset management function. He has also worked at Ancala Partners, DIF Management Capital Partners, Amber Infrastructure and Ernst & Young.

Pelizzari joins from SSE plc, where he worked in the corporate finance team that supported the distributed energy division of the company, including EV charging infrastructure, renewables, smart cities, and digital assets. 

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