People Moves: PBU Chairman Exits; Aegon Hires ESG Chief

Pædagogernes Pension, Industriens, ATP, FPK, De Nederlandsche Bank, Deutsche Aktuarvereinigung, Aegon Asset Management, AMX, Avida, Schroders, Aon, Gresham House, INSPIRE, Fidante Partners

Pædagogernes Pension (PBU) – Claus Omann Jensen is stepping down as chairman of the supervisory board of Danish labour-market pension fund PBU.

He is also leaving politics, having served as mayor of Danish municipality Randers for the Liberal Party from 2014 to 2017. Jensen is taking up a new job as chief executive for the Færch Foundation, a foundation set up by members of Denmark’s wealthy Færch family, which he will start on 1 August.

Jensen replaces Martin Vang Hansen, who left the Færch Foundation a year ago to become the chief executive of ATP Real Estate. The foundation’s current acting chief executive is Martin Nygaard Christoffersen. A new chairman will be selected for PBU by local municipal government organisation Kommunernes Landsforening (KL) and trade union BUPL, which jointly govern the fund. 

Industriens Pension/ATP – Michael Dalsgaard has been appointed senior portfolio manager within unlisted investments for Danish labour market pension fund Industriens Pension. The current value of the fund’s unlisted investments is DKK50bn (€6.7bn).

He is replacing Kasper Struve in the role, who has started his own consultancy firm. Dalsgaard currently works as senior investment manager in ATP ’s global direct investment team, which is responsible for investments in infrastructure and private equity.

He will start work at Industriens in June and will be part of a team responsible for investments in infrastructure, private equity and real estate funds.

Försäkringsbranschens Pensionskassa – Caroline Örtengren has been appointed as the new chief executive for the pension fund for the Swedish insurance industry, Försäkringsbranschens Pensionskassa. She will replace current chief executive Åke Gustafsson, who is retiring after the summer.

Örtengren will be joining the fund from her current role as chief finance officer at Swedish insurance company Handelsbanken Liv.

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) – Else Bos, director of pension supervision at Dutch financial services regulator DNB, is on sick leave. Her responsiblities have been taken on by Frank Elderson, director of bank supervision. Bos is a former CEO of PGGM. According to IPE’s sister publication Pensioen Pro, Bos hoped to resume work at DNB after the summer.

Deutsche Aktuarvereinigung (DAV) – The German actuarial association has named Klaus Heubeck an honorary member in recognition of his decades-long commitment to the actuarial profession on a national and international level.

Mortality tables developed by Heubeck, who continued the actuarial work established by his father, Georg Heubeck, are widely used to calculate pension liabilities in Germany and the eponymous consultancy Heubeck AG is arguably Germany’s best-known actuarial firm.

Aegon Asset Management – Brunno Maradei has been hired from the European Investment Bank (EIB) as global head of ESG for the Dutch asset manager. 

In his new role Maradei will oversee the asset manager’s team responsible for all engagement activities, voting and active ownership, ESG integration and reporting support and advice as well as development and maintenance of responsible investment policies globally. At the EIB he led execution teams for project finance deals outside the EU, focusing on climate-friendly impact investments in Africa.

In addition, Julius Huttunen has been appointed responsible investment manager. Huttunen, who was previously at Calvert Research & Management, is based in Chicago in the US. Both report to Roelie van Wijk-Russchen, global head of responsible business and public affairs. 

Asset Management Exchange (AMX) — Willis Towers Watson’s institutional asset management platform has appointed Jonathan Greenwold to its executive committee with responsibility for legal, risk and compliance, and Patrick Waters has joined the manager development team in the US. Greenwold was most recently general counsel at systematic investment manager Aspect Capital. Waters joins from State Street Global Advisors. 

AMX provides back office services for asset managers to reduce their operating costs and improve efficiency for asset owners. Since its launch in February 2017 it has doubled its in-house team and brought in over $7bn (€6.2bn) in assets under management. 

Avida International – Christian Schmitt, professor for business administration at Hochschule der Bayerischen Wirtschaft in Munich, has joined the consultancy’s German team as senior adviser.

According to Avida, Schmitt has accumulated more than 20 years’ experience in asset management and investment banking, including as former managing director at Risklab, the investment and risk advisory arm of Allianz Global Investors.

Avida said Schmitt would help corporates and pension funds “find the best fitting solutions for their investment processes and evaluate investment and risk management options”.

Schroders – The UK-listed asset manager has hired Kari Sigurdsson to its systematic investments team as a quantitative portfolio manager. He was previously at AQR Capital Management where he worked on factor research, and previously spent five years at BlackRock where he also specialised in factor research.

Aon – The consultancy has hired Dave Barratt for its UK risk settlement team. Barratt joins Aon after 13 years with JLT and HSBC Actuaries and Consultants, where he developed a number of bulk annuity services including a streamlined process for smaller transactions.

Gresham House – The specialist alternative asset manager has named Samee Khan as general counsel. He was previously at the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority where he was responsible for establishing and then leading the legal and compliance function within its private equities department.

Khan also spent 11 years at SVG Capital where he worked closely with Tony Dalwood and Graham Bird, now Gresham House’s CEO and head of strategic equity, respectively. 

INSPIRE – Nick Robins, professor in sustainable finance practice at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, has been appointed the chair of a committee advising a new global network that aims to build research foundations for ‘greening’ the financial system.

INSPIRE stands for “International Network for Sustainable Financial Policy Insights, Research, and Exchange” and will commission research to support the work of the Network for Greening the Financial System, a group of more than 30 central banks and supervisors. Initial funding has been provided by ClimateWorks and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation.

The advisory committee also comprises Wang Yao from Beijing’s Central University of Finance and Economics, Alexander Barkawi from the Council on Economic Policies and Jakob Thomä from the 2° Investing Initiative.

Fidante Partners – The multi-boutique investment house has appointed Nora O’Mahony as head of product. She joins from Pacific Asset Management where she worked in product development, and previously spent 15 years GAM, latterly as global head of product.