GSG, Candriam, AXA, ICG, PFZW, Robeco, Impax, Alecta, Nordnet, Finanstilsynet, LCP
Robeco – The firm has made head of institutional sales appointments for the US and Canada, the Netherlands and the UK effective 1 May.
Angela Ruane has been appointed head of institutional sales in the US and Canada based in New York; Tim Kruis takes on the role for the Netherlands based in Rotterdam; and Arabella Townshend for the UK based in London. They will be responsible for the institutional sales business in their respective regions and report directly to Malick Badjie, who is the head of institutional sales Europe, North America and Africa.
Ruane brings more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Most recently, she was with Insight Investments where she was responsible for its US institutional business development efforts. Prior to that, she was with Rogge Global where she spent more than 10 years and held roles including partner and head of North American distribution. After Rogge was acquired by AGI in 2016, Ruane was brought over to play a hybrid role focused on consultant relations, direct sales and product specialisation for legacy Rogge strategies.
Kruis has a 25-year investment and sales career. Previously, he worked with Record Asset Management in Amsterdam as head of institutional advisory, leading business development in Europe with a specific focus on Benelux. Prior to that, he led the Benelux institutional sales teams, first at Amundi and subsequently at Invesco. He has also held roles focused on business development at City of London Investment Management in London and Capital Dynamics in Zurich. Earlier in his career, Kruis spent 10 years at Robeco as a product specialist both in Rotterdam and New York and as a senior institutional sales manager in Zurich.
Townshend joins Robeco from River and Mercantile where she has spent nearly 13 years holding various senior sales and marketing roles, including head of global consultant relations and managing director, head of UK institutional distribution. In her most recent role as managing director, head of global institutional distribution she was responsible for setting the group’s institutional sales strategy across all institutional channels in the UK, US and Australia. She brings experience distributing a wide range of products and broader client solutions. She has a keen interest in sustainable solutions, seeding the first of River and Mercantile’s sustainable products and was involved in building their sustainability framework.
ICG – The global alternative asset manager has announced the appointment of Tor Herno as managing director within ICG’s EMEA marketing and client relations team focusing exclusively on the Nordic region. Herno’s appointment coincides with the opening of ICG’s first office in Copenhagen.
Herno joins ICG with a decade of experience capital raising in the Nordics. Most recently, he served as director at BlackRock, where he led fundraising for the region, working across every alternative asset class, with a focus on private markets, and covering all client types including pension funds, insurance companies, private banks, endowments, and family offices.
Prior to joining BlackRock, Herno worked at Deutsche Bank, where he originated and distributed structured finance deals in the Nordics. He started his career at Credit Suisse, as part of a team responsible for raising capital, distributing asset-backed securities and structured solutions.
PFZW – Ravien Sewtahal has joined Dutch healthcare scheme PFZW as a senior investment manager.
“Looking forward to working together with my new colleagues at PFZW and PGGM in creating a future-proof and sustainable investment portfolio for our participants!,” he wrote on his LinkedIn profile.
Sewtahal has joined from Pensioenfonds Medisch Specialisten (SPMS) where he worked in the same capacity.
Candriam – The global multi-asset manager has appointed Nicolas Forest, the firm’s global head of fixed income since 2013, as its new chief investment officer, effective 1 May 2023.
This announcement follows the recent appointment of Vincent Hamelink, Candriam’s current CIO, as the new chief executive officer-elect of Candriam, succeeding Naïm Abou-Jaoudé, who will assume the role of CEO of New York Life Investment Management, Candriam’s parent company.
In his new role as CIO, Forest will be responsible for leading a team of over 200 investment professionals, overseeing all of Candriam’s investment platforms, including fixed income, equities, absolute return, asset allocation and sustainable investment. He will be based in Brussels, one of Candriam’s four investment centers.
Philippe Noyard, currently global head of credit and deputy global head of fixed income, and in the group since 1989, will succeed Forest as global head of fixed income. Noyard will lead a team of over 40 fixed income experts, overseeing Candriam’s €40bn fixed income platform, which includes global bonds, money market, investment grade, high yield, emerging market debt and convertible bonds. He will be based in Paris.
Finanstilsynet – Jesper Berg is stepping down as director of the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finanstilsynet) this month after almost eight years in the role. Berg said that the Danish watchdog had been a “fantastic experience”, but added that it was also a hard job that made great demands and wore you down.
Berg, who turned 64 in early April, said he hoped retiring from the top job would give him time for “other passions such as financial stability in developing countries and teaching”.
Berg’s job will now be advertised, the FSA said, and meanwhile, deputy director Kristian Vie Madsen will fill the gap after he leaves.
AXA IM Alts – Victoria Hall has been appointed to the newly-created role of head of funds, infrastructure. Based in London, she will report directly to Mark Gilligan, AXA IM Alts’ head of infrastructure.
Hall will be responsible for supporting the growth of AXA IM Alts’ infrastructure platform, overseeing investment execution, portfolio management and the implementation of ESG and sustainable finance disclosure obligations. She will also work closely with new and existing clients seeking to invest in stable alternative assets that offer resilient inflation protection.
Hall was most recently European head of transactions - special situations at AXA IM Alts, where she has spent the past 15 years in a variety of roles. She brings considerable expertise in sourcing and executing high profile and complex real asset investments, including across the life science and data centre sectors.
Alecta Fastigheter – Tony Persson is replacing Magnus Billing on the board of Alecta’s real estate subsidiary Alecta Fastigheter (Alecta Real Estate), after the latter was fired from his job as CEO of the Swedish pensions giant earlier this month as a repercussion of large losses Alecta suffered on US bank stocks.
Persson, who is head of fixed income and strategy at Alecta, was elected as a new board member of the property firm at an extraordinary general meeting on 13 April.
LCP – As part of the latest developments in LCP’s strategic approach to help defined benefit (DB) schemes navigate the fresh challenges and opportunities associated with soaring pension scheme funding levels, the firm has appointed Jonathan Griffith as head of endgame innovation to help schemes ensure they have considered the full range of options available and to manage the journey to their preferred end-game.
For schemes at or close to their end target that decide to run beyond reaching full buy-in funding levels, Griffith will be leading the multi-disciplinary team from LCP’s corporate, de-risking, investment, and covenant practices supporting trustees and sponsors to explore alternative and potentially improved outcomes for all stakeholders.
Griffith is a partner at LCP and has worked at the firm for 15 years. He has a background helping corporate pension scheme sponsors manage and reduce their everyday pension costs and risk.
Impax Asset Management – Yasumitsu Iwasa as has been appointed as the firm’s head of Japan.
Iwasa has nearly 30 years of investment banking and fund management experience in Japan. Prior to joining Impax in March 2023, he was head of Japan at Fullerton Fund Management, an asset management arm of Temasek Group. Before that he was with PIMCO where he led wholesale business development. He began his career at Goldman Sachs where he spent 12 years in equity derivatives and structuring.
Iwasa’s role at Impax is split across executive duties as country head and as a product specialist within Impax’s distribution team. He reports to Paul Voûte, head of distribution, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Global Steering Group for Impact Investment (GSG) – Nick Hurd has been appointed as the group’s new chair, succeeding Ronnie Cohen, who will become non-executive president and continue to serve on the GSG’s board.
Cohen, who has previously been founder chair of Bridges Fund Management and Big Society Capital, as well as a co-founder director of Social Finance, will remain similarly involved in the GSG’s global efforts to catalyse impact investment.
Hurd’s active role in recent years as a GSG global ambassador for policy will ensure a smooth transition into the chair. He has visited and supported many of the GSG’s national advisory boards, most recently in Mexico and Israel. He also chairs the Impact Taskforce established during the UK’s presidency of the G7, a GSG initiative of which it is the secretariat.
Hurd brings a wealth of expertise to his role as chair. During his 14-year tenure as a member of the UK Parliament, he played a key role in establishing the UK as a world leader in impact investment. He served as a government minister for nine years, and was one of the longest-serving ministers for civil society, where he led the government’s efforts to support the development of the impact investment market.
Nordnet – Per Lindberg has been appointed as the new CEO of Swedish pensions firm Nordnet Pension (Nordnet Pensionsförsäkring), a unit of Nordic digital investment platform Nordnet. He is to take up the role on 1 August, replacing the provider’s current CEO Fredrik Ekblom, who will remain in his role until then. Lindberg is currently acting sales director at Storebrand unit SPP Pension & Insurance, having worked at SPP since 2011.
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