BP Pension Trustees, CPB, AZL, BNY Mellon Asset Management, Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets, Heartwood Investment Management, Spängler IQAM Invest, LCH.Clearnet, Social Housing Pension Scheme

BP Pension TrusteesKeith Shepherd is to join the executive team overseen by Sally Bridgeland, chief executive of BP’s £15bn (€17.5bn) UK pension fund. Shepherd will join in the new year, according to a spokesman for the scheme. He was most recently CIO at RPMI, joining as head of investment management in 2006. He also spent five years as head of private equity at the Wellcome Trust’s endowment and worked in the treasury department of the City of Edinburgh Council for a decade. The BP spokesman said Shepherd’s new role would involve identifying new investment strategies for the fund.

CPBBas ter Weel has been appointed deputy director of the Dutch Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB). On 1 December, he is to succeed Casper van Ewijk, who has left to become director of Netspar, the research network for pensions, ageing and retirement. Currently, Van Weel is head of Labour and Education at the CPB.

AZLMichel van Elk has been appointed chairman of the supervisory board at pensions provider AZL. Van Elk succeeded Henri den Boer – former director of pensions at AZL’s parent company Nationale Nederlanden – who left the company last summer. Previously, Van Elk was chief marketing officer and chief executive at ING Investment Management Europe.

BNY Mellon Asset ManagementHeneg Parthenay has been appointed chief operating office, based in London. He joins from Aviva, where he has worked for eight years, latterly on the executive team at Aviva Investors. Before then, he worked in the insurance division of Renault and Axa Corporate Solutions.

Macquarie Infrastructure & Real AssetsJohn Bruen has been appointed managing director of the London office. He joins from Ferrovial Aeropuertos, where he was corporate development director in Madrid.  Before then, he was a director in the Structured Finance team at Royal Bank of Canada.

Spängler IQAM Invest – The Austrian asset manager Spängler IQAM Invest has finalised the merger with its subsidiary IQAM Invest Asset Management. Both companies had been cooperating since 2007 and now have combined assets under management of €5.8bn. The new Spängler IQAM Invest will continue to operate with the same management board consisting of Werner Eder, Markus Ploner and Thomas Steinberger.

LCH.ClearnetSuneel Bakhshi has been appointed group chief executive. Subject to regulatory approval, he is expected to join in early 2014, at which point Jacques Aigrain, interim executive chairman, will resume his position as non-executive chairman of LCH.Clearnet Group, alongside his role as non-executive director of London Stock Exchange Group.

Heartwood Investment ManagementGuy Davies has been appointed head of charities. He joins from Evercore Pan-Asset, where he was head of charities, trusts and private clients. Before then, he was head of charities and philanthropy at Barclays Wealth. 

Social Housing Pension Scheme (SHPS) – Colin Small and Liz Hughes have been re-elected to the SHPS committee. Small has worked in the social housing sector for more than 35 years, holding various senior roles at a number of housing associations. His most recent full-time appointments were at Festival Housing and Touchstone as finance director. Hughes is the executive director of People and Resourcing at Metropolitan Housing Trust.

ECM Asset Management – The multi-asset credit investor owned by Wells Fargo has appointed Cristiano Mela as an investment analyst covering Industrials. Before joining ECM, he spent six years at Deutsche Bank Corporate Investment Banking.