People roundup: TKP Pensioen names new CEO, Smart adds digital expertise

TKP Pensioen, AFM, Smart Pension, PensionDanmark, Sampension, AMF, Folksam, Natixis IM, AXA IM, Nuveen, Triple Point, AAE, GSAM, Arabesque

TKP Pensioen – Paul Everloo will be CEO of the Dutch pensions administrator from April 2020, succeeding Ernst de Bie. Everloo will be joining TKP from Aegon, its parent, where he has worked since 2010, most latterly as director of pensions operations.  

De Bie has been at TKP for almost 30 years, joining in 1999 as a controller and becoming CEO in 2011. As at 2018 TKP administered pensions for 3.7 million people.

AFM – The Dutch financial markets watchdog will have a new chair as of February next year, with Laura van Geest appointed to succeed Merel van Vroonhoven for a four year term. Vroonhoven left on 1 September, with his position currently being filled by Hanzo van Beusekom.

Van Geest has director of the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) since 2013. Before that she worked at the Dutch finance ministry and at the International Monetary Fund.

Smart Pension – The UK defined contribution master trust provider has recruited Anna Darnley, a 26-year-old digital strategist with a special interest in artificial intelligence and blockchain, to its trustee board. Darnley is also a trustee for the £1.3bn (€1.5bn) Accenture Retirement Savings Plan, and, according to Smart, “works internationally on innovative and start-up projects, using her Internet of Things and broader digital expertise to advise clients across strategy and consulting needs”.

It said its independent trustee board was now 60 per cent female, and “representative of all generations saving into the pension scheme”. Just under 60 per cent of Smart’s members are younger than 40, with more than 30 per cent aged between 22 and 30.  

Andy Cheseldine, Smart Pension’s independent chair of trustees, said: “Anna is a very engaged and digital-savvy addition to our independent board and brings with her an understanding of the millennial and Gen Z mindset.”

PensionDanmark — Danish labour-market pension fund PensionDanmark has appointed Rune Gade Holm as its new head of private debt. In his new role, he will work as part of the DKK257bn (€34bn) fund’s alternative investment team, after the department was merged with PensionDanmark’s private debt department in March.

Gade Holm has worked at the pension fund since 2012 as a senior investment manager and, prior to this, worked for corporate financial adviser Clearwater International as associate director. He replaces PensionDanmark’s previous head of private debt Kim Nielsen, who was appointed head of alternative investments after the departments came together, while also continuing to work as head of private debt. PensionDanmark said Gade Holm took up his new role on 1 October.

Sampension — Mads Smith Hansen is returning to Danish labour-market pension provider Sampension, where he has been appointed as chief operating officer and the second member of the executive board of the two entities Sampension Livsforsikring and Sampension Administrationsselskab. The pension fund said it decided to expand the executive board to two in light of its growing business volume and the associated complexity. 

Smith Hansen joins the fund from his current role of chief executive of Danish traditional pensions specialist Norli Pension, which is owned by Nordic Insurance Consolidation Group. He worked at Norli Pension since February, following a three-year spell as chief risk officer for Danish statutory pension fund ATP staring in 2016. Before that, Smith Hansen worked at Sampension for nine years — the last six as chief financial officer. Sampension said Smith Hansen will take up his new role by 1 April 2020 at the latest.

AMF — Aino Bunge has been hired as the new chief of staff at Swedish blue-collar pension fund AMF. She replaces Tomas Flodén, who was appointed as the fund’s new CIO in April. Bunge previously worked at the Swedish Ministry of Finance, where she was head of the financial markets department, and at the Swedish financial services authority, in various senior roles.

AMF told IPE that, as head of the fund’s staff unit, she will be responsible for areas including finances, compliance, sustainability and the actuarial function, and she has also become a member of AMF’s management team. Bunge began work in her new role on 20 August.

Folksam — Anders Hjelm has been appointed the new head of compliance at the Folksam group’s life and pensions unit, Folksam Liv. Hjelm, who has already started work in his new position, is filling the gap left by Charlotta Carlberg, who was recently appointed chief executive of the company’s investment subsidiary, Folksam Fondsforsäkring.

Hjelm’s most recent role at Folksam was that of head of the legal affairs department, and he has been replaced in that job on a temporary basis by Eric Fredriksson. Frediksson was a member of Folksam’s legal team before his appointment as acting head of the legal affairs department.

Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) – Didier Deleage has joined the French financial market regulator’s asset management department as its deputy head, working alongside Philippe Sourlas, managing director.

Deleage is a veteran of the French asset management industry, having held roles such as chief operating officer and deputy CEO of HSBC Global Asset Management (France) and, more recently, chaairman of the executive board of Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management (France). He was a member of the board of directors at AFG, the French asset management association, between 2006 and 2014.

Natixis Investment Managers – Bank-owned Natixis has created the role of chief operating officer, which Joseph Pinto will take up in the coming months. He will report to Jean Raby, CEO of the asset manager. Pinto started his career in 1992 with Crédit Lyonnais, working in the securitisation business, before moving to Lehman Brothers in London. He has been at AXA Investment Managers since 2007, most recently as chief operating officer and a member of the management board.

Separately, Philippe Setbon has been named chief executive of Ostrum Asset Management, the renamed Natixis Asset Management and Natixis IM’s largest affiliate. He will replace Matthieu Duncan at the end of November. Natixis CEO François Riahi said: “Philippe Setbon will lead one of our key strategic initiatives: the creation and development with La Banque Postale Asset Management of a European leader focused on insurance-related euro fixed income.”

AXA Investment Managers – Gérald Harlin has been appointed executive chairman of AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM), taking over from CEO Andrea Rossi. 

Harlin, who is currently group deputy CEO and group CFO, will take up his new role on 1 December, continuing to report to Thomas Buberl, CEO of AXA. He has also assumed the role of chairman of the board at AXA IM, succeeding Christof Kutscher, who had held this role since 2014.

Rossi, who had led the asset manager since 2013, will become a strategic advisor to Harlin on December 1. 

Nuveen – Gregory Ohlson has been hired for the newly created role of head of UK consultant relations for the international advisory services (IAS) team at Nuveen, the investment manager of US pension fund TIAA. He was most recently consultant relations manager at PineBridge Investments, and has also worked for Candriam Investors Group, Spirit Advisory Services, Legal & General Investment Management and AXA Investment Managers.

Nuveen said the role was created to help it achieve its growth ambitions in the UK. 

Triple Point – The UK impact investment manager has appointed Jennifer Ockwell as partner and head of institutional, responsible for growing the institutional business in the UK and Ireland. 

She was most recently head of UK institutional at Franklin Templeton Investments, and before that at Janus Henderson Investments, becoming head of its UK institutional business after the merger with Henderson Global Investors, where she had a similar role. She was also a trustee director for the defined benefit and defined contribution schemes at Janus Henderson.

Triple Point described her as playing an instrumental role in establishing The Diversity Project, an industry-wide initiative to foster diversity in the investment profession. Ockwell is a member of the Diversity Project neuro-inclusion committee, which aims to make the financial and savings sector more accessible to those with a variety of neurological differences.

Actuarial Association of Europe (AAE) – Falco Valkenburg has been elected the new chairperson of the umbrella body for the year to October 2020, succeeding Esko Kivisaari. Valkenburg was chair of the association’s risk management committee from 2005 to 2011 and chaired the AAE’s pensions committee from 2011 to 2018. He is also a member of the Occupational Pensions Stakeholder Group at EIOPA.

Valkenburg said: “I feel privileged to represent this great organisation of volunteers as chairperson. We face big challenges: the low interest environment, our climate, changing regulations – just to mention three – are all impacting insurers, pension funds, consumers and the work of actuaries.

“As European profession of actuaries it is our aim to contribute to the well-being of society. This will also be an important objective for the next year.”

Goldman Sachs Asset Management – Tim Verheyden, previously of Arabesque, joined GSAM’s quantitative investment strategies team as an executive director, focusing on the discovery and refinement of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) signals for inclusion in the group’s equity strategies. At Arabesque Verheyden oversaw ESG research and the creation of its S-Ray sustainability ratings platform.