GPFG/Council on Ethics – Vigdis Vandvik has been appointed as a new member of the five-strong Council on Ethics (Etikkrådet) for the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), Norway’s Ministry of Finance announced. Vandvik, a professor at the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Bergen, has been appointed for a term ending 31 May 2025 and is replacing Trude Myklebust.
Vandvik is also director of the Centre for Sustainable Area Management (CeSAM) and has been affiliated with the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research since 2017, according to the Council on Ethics. Among her other roles, she a member of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Norwegian government’s Environmental Risk Committee.
Robeco/Amundi – Alexander Preininger returns to Robeco as global head of sales and marketing and executive committee member effective 1 November 2022.
Preininger joins from Amundi where he was global head of institutional clients coverage. Prior to that, he was head of institutional coverage EMEA at Robeco for two years, following his position as head of institutional coverage EMEA, head of solutions EMEA and member of the board of managing directors at DWS International GmbH – formerly Deutsche Asset Management – in Frankfurt.
Preininger also held several senior positions at DWS, including head of asset and wealth management in Japan, and global co-head of client solutions at DWS in Frankfurt.
Meanwhile at Amundi, Francesca Ciceri has been named head of institutional clients coverage.
Prior to her new appointment, Ciceri was head of institutional business for Italy at Amundi. From 2011 to July 2017, she was head of institutional and wholesale distribution Italy at Pioneer Investments, in charge of Italian, Greek, Cypriot and Maltese markets.
House of Reach/Alecta – Hans Sterte, the chief investment officer of Sweden’s largest pension fund Alecta who is due to leave on 11 November, is to join Stockholm-based business development consultancy House of Reach as senior partner on 1 January next year, the consultancy announced.
House of Reach said in a post on LinkedIn that Sterte had “a truly unique background with a solid track record” as CIO at some of the largest and most sophisticated institutions in the Nordics.
“Hans Sterte will create value for all our clients, with tons of experience from a tier 1 institutional investor’s perspective,” the firm said.
It was recently announced that Aviva Investors has entered into a partnership with House of Reach, to expand its presence in the Nordic markets.
Meanwhile at Alecta Fastigheter, the real estate arm of Alecta, has appointed Assur Badur as its new general counsel. The domestic property subsidiary, which was established last year, said the legal function had a key role in the build-up and growth phase it was currently in.
Badur, who will take up the new role on 3 October, most recently worked in the Stockholm office of law firm Vinge, where he was head of real estate.
MetLife Investment Management (MIM) – The institutional asset management business of MetLife Inc. has named René Zeidan a director in its institutional client group, where he will be responsible for institutional client strategy and the delivery of investment solutions to clients in Europe.
Based in Frankfurt, Zeldan will primarily focus on the German and Austrian markets.Zeldan’s addition to this newly-created position expands MIM’s European presence, building on its recent authorisation by the Central Bank of Ireland to manage and distribute MIM’s full range of investment capabilities across the European Economic Area.
Prior to joining MIM, Zeldan was a director at Allianz Global Investors where he was responsible for business development and client service efforts for European insurance companies. He was also a vice president and product specialist at MainFirst Asset Management.
Cohen & Steers – Richard Hill has been named sSenior vice president and head of real estate strategy and research, a newly-created position. Hill will lead the real estate strategy group, a team responsible for identifying and analysing long-term and secular real estate investment ideas, as well as building an integrated listed and private real estate strategy function to help investors optimise portfolios both strategically and tactically. He reports to Jon Cheigh, CIO and head of global real estate.
Hill joins Cohen & Steers with 21 years of real estate experience. He most recently served as the head of US REIT equity and CRE debt research at Morgan Stanley, where he oversaw public REIT equity research, CRE debt strategy and macro property research. Prior to that he worked at RBS Securities as the director of CMBS and CLO strategy and at Bank of America as a vice president and strategic transaction banker.
Swedish Pensions Agency – Mia Liblik is to start a new job at the Swedish Pensions Agency (Pensionsmyndigheten) as its new communications manager. Until July, she was chief executive officer and board member of Folksam Tjänste, the new occupational pension company under IORP II regulations formed from Swedish pensions and insurance group Folksam’s life insurance business. Before starting in that role in 2021 she was CEO of another of the group’s subsidiaries, Folksam LO Pension.
Liblik will take up her new role on 1 October, taking over from Carl-Magnus Löfström, the Swedish Pensions Agency said.
Neuberger Berman – The asset manager has hired Niall O’Sullivan for a newly-created role as chief investment officer, multi-asset strategies, EMEA.
Working closely with the firm’s global investment teams, O’Sullivan will be responsible for leading the multi-asset team’s investment activity in the region, driving portfolio construction and outlook development for EMEA client portfolios. He will join the firm’s asset allocation committee and be proactive in developing, authoring, and delivering market insight, commentary, and differentiated thought leadership and collateral to engage sophisticated investors in the region.
O’Sullivan has more than 25 years of experience managing investment portfolios and programs, globally. Most recently, he worked with Mercer Investments as CIO of its Outsourced CIO (OCIO) business for Europe, Middle East and Asia. Prior to joining Mercer in 2010, he was with QED in Dublin, where he focused on solution-driven investment opportunities with banks and insurance companies.
LSR – The Reykjavik-based pension fund for government employees has appointed Halla Kristjánsdóttir as its new CIO, replacing Björn Hjaltested Gunnarsson, who retired this summer.
Kristjánsdóttir has worked in the pension fund’s asset management department since 2006 and has had various duties at the institution over the years. Most recently, she was fund manager of LSR’s foreign investments. LSR is Iceland’s largest pension fund, with total assets of just over ISK1trn (€7bn) at the end of 2021.
