Towers Watson is reorganising its manager research team, appointing a new global division head following the promotion of Craig Baker.
The consultancy said Luba Nikulina, its long-standing global head of private markets, would take over as global head of manager research with immediate effect.
Baker, Nikulina’s predecessor, was named global CIO in June, at the same time the firm promoted Chris Mansi to global delegated CIO, a role he previously held for the consultancy’s European division.
Nikulina has worked at Towers Watson since 2005, both in the company’s London and New York offices, and was previously deputy head of capital investment at Russian mining company Norilsk Nickel.
She also spent five years as an investment manager at Probusinessbank in Moscow.
The promotion of Nikulina will trigger a restructuring of the consultancy’s manager research business, according to Baker.
He noted that Towers Watson had long been asset-class agnostic, with an emphasis on asset returns over individual classes.
“The new structure will enhance our ability to compare mandates of a similar nature, such as long-only equity and long/short equity, or, indeed, public and private equity,” he said.
“It will also create better alignment between our research efforts and portfolio construction process.”
The new structure will see the creation of three global research teams – equity, credit and diversified strategies.
Jim MacLachlan will continue to lead the equity research department but with additional responsibility for long/short equity hedge funds and private equity funds.
Chris Redmond will remain in charge of credit but additionally cover fixed income hedge funds and illiquid credit.
Damien Loveday, former head of the hedge fund research team, has been named head of the diversified strategies team, which will cover macro hedge funds, reinsurance, multi-strategy and real assets, such as infrastructure, property and farmland.
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