AXA Investment Managers has appointed Laurent Clavel, currently head of the firm's Quant Lab, as global head of multi-asset. 

Based in Paris, he will take over from Serge Pizem from September, who will be leaving the firm after two decades to "pursue new professional challenges" outside AXA IM. 

Clavel (pictured) will report to Hans Stoter, global head of AXA IM Core, and focus on enhancing the investment, commercial and financial performance of the €864bn firm's multi-asset platform.

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Pizem joined AXA IM in 2002 to oversee European equities and later took the lead of Framlington Paris. He then began overseeing the total return team before becoming the head of multi-asset in 2013 and global head of multi-asset in 2019.

"As Serge decides to pursue new professional challenges outside AXA, I would like to express a heartfelt thank you to him for his excellent work and the important contribution he has made to AXA IM's success over the last 20 years. I wish Serge a well-deserved success in his new venture," said Stoter. 

The newly-appointed Clavel joined AXA IM in 2015 as international economist and then became the head of macroeconomic research in 2016. Three years later, he took on the role of head of research.

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He has served as the firm's head of Quant Lab since October 2019, which focuses on quantitative research, portfolio engineering, product engineering and data science. 

Prior to joining AXA IM, he worked for two years at the French Statistical Institute (INSEE) as the head of the forecasting unit. Before this, he covered the Nordic economies as financial adviser to the French Treasury and worked for the French Ministry for the Budget.