People Moves: CFA Institute Appoints First Female President [updated]

CFA Institute, American Century Investments, DNB, Nordkinn AM, Norwegian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, EFAMA, River and Mercantile, Carmignac, Robeco, SVVK-ASIR, Schroders, AXA IM, IIRC

CFA Institute – CFA Institute has appointed Margaret Franklin as its new CEO and president, taking over from Paul Smith. She is the first woman to hold the position in the organisation’s 73-year history.

Franklin is currently president of BNY Mellon Wealth Management in Canada and head of the company’s international wealth management division for North America. She has previously held senior roles at a range of asset management groups including Marret Private Wealth, State Street Global Advisors and Barclays Global Investors (now part of BlackRock).

Franklin has been associated with CFA Institute since 2011 when she chaired of organisation’s board of governors. She has also served on the board of CFA Society Toronto. She is a founding member of the CFA Institute Women in Investment Initiative.

Franklin will take up her new position on 2 September. Smith plans to leave the institute at the end of this year, remaining as and adviser to the CEO until 31 December.

American Century Investments – The €131bn privately held asset manager has hired two veterans of Dimensional Fund Advisors for a new investment unit, branded ‘Avantis Investors’. Eduardo Repetto has been appointed chief investment officer of the venture and Patrick Keating chief operating officer.

According to American Century, they will be developing “a new suite of broadly diversified, tax-efficient and cost-effective equity and fixed income solutions based on a time-tested theoretical and empirical framework, updated with the latest in academic and financial theory”.

Jonathan Thomas, American Century’s CEO, said the pair were “proven leaders who have delivered incredible growth and success by creating, honing and managing strategies informed by academic research and sound financial theories”.

He added: “We plan to leverage their tremendous knowledge and expertise to build unique systematic investment processes at Avantis Investors that we believe will form a solid basis for long-term asset allocation solutions.” 

Repetto left Dimensional in 2017 after 17 years at the firm. He served as CIO from 2007 and co-CEO from 2009. Keating was with Dimensional for 15 years and served as chief operating officer until his departure also in 2017. Before joining Dimensional, Keating worked at Assante Capital Management.

DNB – Liesbeth Goverse and Arnoud Vossen, pension fund supervisors at Dutch regulator De Nederlandsche Bank, will leave their position as of 1 July. Goverse, who is currently supervisory head of medium-sized pension funds, is to move to supervision of insurers at DNB. Vossen – supervisory head of large pension funds – has been appointed as adviser to the central bank of the Dutch Caribean territories of Curaçao and St Martin. DNB hasn’t named successors yet.

Nordkinn Asset Management – Peter Hansson has been appointed as a member of the supervisory board of the Swedish firm Nordkinn Asset Management, according to his LinkedIn profile. Hansson became a member of the supervisory board of Sweden’s AP1 in May, having retired last year from his role as chief executive of the Swedish pension fund for the banking industry, SPK, after 14 years. Hansson also chairs the finance committee of the Swedish Childhood Cancer Fund.

Norwegian Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs – Christl Kvam, state secretary to Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Anniken Hauglie, is leaving the role. She will be replaced by Vegard Einan, currently leader of Norwegian trade union Parat, as of 5 August.

Kvam is moving on to a new role as the first municipal director of Norwegian municipality Hamar. Kvam is a graduate nurse and business economist, and has previously worked as county governor of Oppland and regional director of the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise’s inland division.

Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) – John Taylor has started his term as the association’s new president today, taking over from Jules Constantinou. Taylor is a partner and head of guided outcomes at Hymans Robertson, and was previously a managing director at NEST, the UK auto-enrolment provider.

Taylor also this week become chair of the Scottish Financial Risk Academy Group, a new initiative connecting academia with financial services.

Taylor said: “Employers are closing final salary pension schemes and insurers are less willing to set aside capital to support long-term investment and longevity guarantees. Our profession has provided the tools and techniques to support institutions in the past. Now we must focus on finding ways to use them to support individuals.”

At the IFoA’s annual general meeting in Edinburgh this week, Taylor announced the association would be launching a certificate in data science in March, to keep current actuaries’ skills in “generating value from data”.

EFAMA – Members of the European asset management association elected Nicolas Calcoen, deputy general manager of Amundi, to replace William Nott, CEO of SYZ Asset Management, as its new president. Calcoen’s term will run for two years. New vice-presidents were also elected: Myriam Vanneste, executive director of Candriam Investor Group, and Jarkko Syyrilä, head of public affairs of Nordea Asset and Wealth Management.

River and Mercantile Group – James Barham, currently deputy CEO, will take over as chief executive officer on Monday, 1 July. He will be replacing Mike Faulkner, who has decided to focus on the management and development of the group’s range of macro strategies. Faulkner will remain on the board as an executive director and become the group’s head of macro strategies and innovation.

River and Mercantile group chairman Jonathan Dawson said the change would allow Faulkner “the time to focus on driving forward our investment thinking for the benefit of our clients and to support the future growth of River and Mercantile”.

Carmignac – Justin Kew has been appointed to the newly created role of sustainability manager. Based in London, he joined from Fidelity International where he was a senior ESG analyst. Before that he worked in sustainable investment and product management for JP Morgan Asset Management.

At Carmignac he will be responsible for advancing the ESG investment process and framework, carrying out thematic research and designing investment solutions, including impact investment. He will also support engagement and industry initiatives.

Robeco – Dutch asset manager Robeco has appointed Mark den Hollander as chief financial and risk officer (CFRO) as well as a member of its executive committee and statutory director. He will be responsible for business control and finance, the financial and operational risk management teams, fiscal affairs, legal affairs, compliance and the investment restrictions team.

Den Hollander joins from NN Investment Partners – formerly ING Investment Management – where he held several positions, leaving as CFRO. Prior to this, he served as chief risk officer, managing director and head of investment solutions. He started his career at ABN AMRO AM in 1993, where he also held various positions in portfolio management, equity derivatives and multi-asset solutions, before he was appointed CIO of structured investment solutions in 2008.

SVVK-ASIR – Tamara Hardegger will be taking over from Jacqueline Oh as managing director of the responsible investment association of Swiss pension funds on 1 July. She has been working in responsible investment for nearly a decade, most recently at Sustainalytics where she was responsible for the research and data company’s relationships with clients in Switzerland, Germany and Austria. She also previously worked at Thomson Reuters as ESG product manager.

Konferenz der kantonalen BVG-und Stiftungsaufsichtsbehörden – Roger Tischhauser, director of the pension funds and foundations regulator for the Swiss cantons of Zurich and Schaffhausen (BVS), has been elected president of the country’s association of regional pension supervisory authorities. He succeeds Dominique Favre, director of As-So, the supervisor for occupational pensions in western Switzerland. Favre was head of the cross-regional association for six years.

Schroders – The UK-listed asset manager has appointed Sjoerd Hoogeveen as director of institutional sales in the Netherlands. He is to focus on improving relations with Schroders’ Dutch institutional clients. Hoogeveen joins from M&G Investments where he was responsible for the institutional market. Prior to this, he worked at ING Investment Management as an investment consultant between 2007 and 2011.

Separately, Schroders has made two hires for its UK-based liability-driven investment (LDI) team. Kenny Nicoll and Andrew Mulhair have joined as LDI solutions managers, which are newly-created roles. Nicoll was previously a director in manager research at Redington, where he specialised in LDI, and has also worked at NatWest Markets and ABN Amro. Mulhair was previously an investment associate in Willis Towers Watson’s LDI team.

AXA Investment Managers – Christophe Herpet has been named global head of AXA Fixed Income and its ‘buy and maintain’ strategies, effective immediately. Based in Paris, he will oversee the French asset manager’s fixed income portfolios.

Herpet joined AXA IM in 2004 as a senior portfolio manager in hedge funds and structured finance. He moved to the fixed income team in 2010. Prior to joining AXA IM, he worked for Credit Agricole Indosuez, Bayerische Landesbank and BNP Paribas.

International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) – A week after announcing that Richard Howitt was stepping down as CEO of the organisation, the IIRC has appointed Charles Tilley as interim CEO. He has been involved in the organisation since its inception and currently serves as a member of the IIRC Council and senior adviser to the IIRC chair. Tilley has also been CEO of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and is currently a member of the board of housing lender MORhomes and data consultancy Anmut. 

Howitt’s last day at the IIRC was on Friday. He led the organisation for nearly three years. He said: “It has been a privilege to serve the IIRC and to be part of its historic mission to transform corporate reporting in the world.”