People Moves: PGGM Names Temporary CEO; Mercer-JLT Merger Latest [updated]

PGGM, Mercer, JLT, AP Pension, Skandia, AFM, Amundi, Lazard, Wells Fargo AM, BPL Pensioen, PDN, Barnett Waddingham, CFA Institute, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management, BNY Mellon, MJ Hudson

PGGM – The supervisory board of Dutch asset manager and pension provider PGGM has named Kees Beuving as temporary chief executive.

Beuving is to act as co-CEO alongside Paul Boonkamp, who is also chief financial and risk officer, while CEO Edwin Velzel recovers from illness. Velzel’s absence is expected to take a few months, the company said.

Beuving has previously held the CEO role at both Fortis Bank Netherlands and Friesland Bank. Since 2014, he has been a member of the supervisory board at BNG Bank and the executive chair of VSB Vermogensfonds.

Mercer/JLT – Consultancy giant Mercer has made a number of appointments as it integrates JLT Group’s operations following its $5.6bn takeover last year. The appointments will take effect when the deal is approved by financial and competition regulators.

Mark McNulty, currently managing director of investment solutions at JLT, will become European head of clients for Mercer’s fiduciary management business – a newly created position. He will be responsible for client strategy, management and servicing, Mercer said in a statement.

Malcolm Reynolds will become client leader for Mercer’s UK administration arm, working with Rich Tuff to combine the two companies’ administration arms. Reynolds is currently managing director of JLT UK Administration Services, while Tuff is UK and Ireland administration leader at Mercer.

Steven Robinson, managing director of trustee and corporate consulting at JLT, will move to lead Mercer’s mid-market client business, including responsibility for defined benefit scheme advice.

Other appointments include Karen Phillips, currently managing director of JLT’s wealth management operations, who will become head of Mercer’s UK financial planning business, and Teresa Beach, managing director of JLT Technology Solutions, who will lead the joint UK technology operations and provide support to the integration effort.

AP Pension/Skandia Denmark – Morten Halborg, managing director of Skandia Asset Management and investment director at Skandia Denmark, is to exit the company at the end of February following its acquisition by AP Pension last year.

From 1 February, AP Pension’s investment director Ralf Magnussen will take on responsibility for investments across AP Pension and Skandia.

Halborg has worked at Skandia Group in Denmark for almost 15 years, the company said in a statement, including involvement with “virtually all aspects of asset management”.

Bo Normann Rasmussen, chair of the board of Skandia Asset Management, said AP Pension had “a natural ambition” to develop areas such as responsible and sustainable investment, but “the timing was not right”.

Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PIP) – The UK-based infrastructure business – developed by the country’s pension fund trade body the PLSA – has appointed Andy Clapp as head of asset management. He was previously at Dalmore Capital, one of PIP’s external managers, and has 15 years’ experience advising and investing in infrastructure assets.

AFM – Martin van Rijn has been appointed as supervisory chair at communication watchdog Autoriteit Financiële Markten (AFM) as of 24 May. He is to succeed Paul Rosenmöller who plans to stand for a seat in the Dutch senate. Van Rijn – a former chief executive at PGGM and state secretary for health, wellbeing and sport – is currently a member of AFM’s supervisory board.

Wendy de Jong, a lawyer and corporate economist in the financial sector and partner at consultancy GovernanceQ, will join AFM’s supervisory board. She sits on the supervisory boards of Ambulance Amsterdam, Topfonds Gelderland, DSM Pensioenfonds and Dutch Venture Initiative. She plans to resign from the two latter positions.

Amundi – Europe’s largest asset manager has hired Ashley Fagan, head of institutional for the UK and Ireland at iShares, BlackRock’s exchange-traded fund (ETF) business. At Amundi she will be head of ETF, indexing and smart beta development for the UK and Ireland. 

She will also become the company’s global head of strategic accounts co-ordination alongside her responsibilities for strategy and business development, Amundi said in a statement.

Fagan worked at iShares for 10 years in a number of roles, and was previously at Barclays Investment Bank’s collateralised debt obligation arm. 

Separately, Amundi has also appointed Julien Fontaine as head of partnerships and Pascal Duval as head of retail solutions. Both are members of the asset manager’s executive committee. Fontaine joined Amundi in 2014 as CEO of its Japanese business, before being appointed head of retail marketing a year ago.

Duval joins after two years operating his own research and advisory company, Duval Capital.

Lazard Asset Management – Jennifer Anderson has left UK master trust TPT Retirement Solutions to join Lazard as co-head of sustainable investment and ESG, based in London. Nikita Singhal has been hired as the other co-head, and is based in New York.

At TPT, Anderson was an investment manager and led the pension provider’s responsible investment, ESG and climate change strategies. She previously worked in analyst roles at Citigroup and Jupiter Asset Management. She has been a board director for the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change since 2015. 

Singhal was previously a portfolio analyst with ClearBridge Investments, focusing on the renewable energy sector, and has also worked at the Heron Foundation and the International Finance Corporation. 

Wells Fargo Asset Management – The US asset manager has hired Matthias Scheiber as global head of portfolio management for its multi-asset solutions business.

He joins from Schroders, where he was in charge of its institutional mandates. He has previously worked at Aethra Asset Management, ABN Amro Asset Management and Raiffeisen Bank.

At Wells Fargo, Scheiber will be responsible for “developing and managing outcome-oriented multi-asset investment solutions”, the company said.

BPL Pensioen – Jack Buckens has started as chairman at BPL Pensioen, the €17.7bn Dutch scheme for the agricultural sector. He succeeded René le Clerq who led the pension fund for 10 years. Between 1994 and 2016, Buckens had several management positions in the insurance sector, including six years as chief executive at Interpolis.

Buckens is chairman of the supervisory board at the €199bn healthcare scheme PFZW, and until the end of 2018 was interim chair of the €8.7bn Pensioenfonds Hoogovens.

PDN – The €7bn pension fund of Dutch chemicals giant DSM has named Mila Hoekstra as member of its supervisory board. She succeeds Henriëtte de Lange, who has been appointed Ombudsman for Pensions, succeeding Piet Keizer.

Hoekstra also sits on several other supervisory boards, including the €3.9bn Pensioenfonds TNO, Heineken’s €3.6bn Dutch pension fund, the €3.9bn Dutch merchant navy scheme.

Barnett Waddingham – The UK consultancy has poached Ian Mills from Redington as a senior investment consultant for defined benefit pension schemes. At Redington, Mills was a managing director in the investment consulting team from 2017, and has also worked at LCP.

CFA Institute – The global association of investment management professionals has appointed Kazim Razvi as director of financial reporting policy for the EMEA region. The institute said he would work on policy positions and best practice guidelines for financial and corporate reporting.

He was previously global head of accounting research and policy at Fitch Ratings, and has also worked at Moody’s and EY, and is currently a member of the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group’s pension advisory panel.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management (SMTAM) – Akiyoshi Nagashima has been appointed chief investment officer at Japan’s biggest asset manager. He has worked for the group for more than 30 years, most recently as head of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank’s equity investment department.

The appointment follows SMTAM’s restructure last year, when the company merged its retail and institutional asset management businesses. SMTAM runs more than $550bn (.

BNY Mellon – Linda McMahon will join the custody giant on 18 February as head of UK trust and depositary. She was previously head of State Street’s trustee business in the UK.

In her new role, McMahon will be responsible for depositary activities including client relationship management, service delivery, strategy and compliance.

MJ Hudson – The UK-based asset management consultancy has launched a legal services subsidiary in Milan, MJ Hudson Alma. Alessandro Corno has already joined as a founding partner, having previously worked at Gatti Pavesi Bianchi, DLA Piper and Jones Day. Marco Zechini will join in March from US law firm Orrick’s Rome office.

The new office will focus on fund formation and financial regulatory mandates. Matthew Hudson, senior partner and founder of MJ Hudson, said Italy had “long been on our radar” and indicated that his firm would look to add other regional teams across Europe where possible.