Calastone 

Calastone, the largest global funds network, announces the appointment of Brian Godins as chief commercial officer, where he will lead the business' commercial strategy and accelerate geographic growth and penetration of their global solutions.

Reporting into Julien Hammerson, CEO, Brian brings 30 years of global experience within the financial services industry, having covered a vast array of disciplines, including Global Markets Operations, Securities Services, Technology, Change Management, Client Relationship Management and Revenue generating roles.

His most recent role was in leading HSBC's Securities Services division for Asia-Pacific and Middle East. 

Within the commercial organization, Calastone's Ross Fox has moved from Singapore to the UK as Managing Director, Head of UK and Europe, where he will bring his decade of experience at Calastone to grow its business across the region. Justin Christopher has been appointed as Managing Director, Head of Asia, based in Singapore, having previously been based in Sydney. Teresa Walker will continue to lead the business in Australia and New Zealand.  

Calastone's Ed Lopez has moved into a newly created role as President of Money Market Services, where he will focus on driving the global growth of Calastone's Money Market Services business.

Calastone CEO Julien Hammerson, said: "I am delighted to welcome Brian as Chief Commercial Officer. His wealth of industry experience leading teams across asset management and asset servicing will play a crucial role in strengthening Calastone's senior leadership team. 

"The funds industry is undergoing an unprecedented transformation and as our business enters its next phase of growth, Brian will be instrumental in driving our client and industry engagement to support the next generation of digital investing. 

"Calastone has continued its impressive global expansion, welcoming over 600 new clients over the past year, and now connects over 3,600 clients across 54 countries and territories, processing over £250 billion of investment value each month."

Brian Godins, chief commercial officer at Calastone, said: "I am excited to join Calastone at such an important time in its global expansion, and to work with a team of such strength and talent, who are at the forefront of the digitalisation of the global funds industry. I'm looking forward to driving the growth of the business as the asset management industry seeks to further reduce complexity and enhance investor value and experience."

Ruffer

Ruffer has promoted head of investment strategy Neil McLeish to co-chief investment officer as founder and chair Jonathan Ruffer hands over control of the firm to its working partners.

McLeish will work with Henry Maxey, who since 2010 has set Ruffer's investment strategy and asset allocation alongside Ruffer and supported a team of senior fund managers and research analysts.

His appointment, subject to regulatory approval, is a move to support the succession planning Ruffer began in 2010. 

He will remain as chair and continue to be closely involved with the firm's investment strategy but will be handing control of the firm to its working partners to secure its future as an independent private partnership.

McLeish joined the firm last September as head of investment strategy after nearly three decades at Morgan Stanley, where he held leadership roles in research and trading and was most recently global head of macro research. 

Ruffer said: "These two moves are timely, and just what is required. It in no way changes my practical working pattern at Ruffer; after my day, it will be clear that these steps have meant all the implications for change, practical and constitutional, are already in place for what might feel like a new chapter."

Maxey added: "As we confront some of the most challenging markets for a generation, I look forward to continuing to strengthen my collaboration with Neil. There is no-one I would rather be partnering with than him, in service of our clients." 

Premier Miton

Premier Miton's business development director Neil Bridge will retire later in 2023.

He joined the firm in 2011 after 22 years at Schroders where he was head of UK intermediary distribution.

Bridge is currently responsible for managing and developing relationships with wealth managers and discretionary clients in London and the North West.

Mike O'Shea, CEO of Premier Miton, said Bridge has been "instrumental" in significantly growing the company's assets during his tenure.

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After his departure, global head of distribution Jonathan Willcocks will continue leading the distribution team.

O'Shea added: "[Bridge] will be greatly missed by both the teams at Premier Miton and by many of our clients with whom he has forged close working relationships over the years.

"We wish Neil all the very best for his retirement and for the future."

Juilus Baer

Marco Parroni, currently head of global brand partnerships & sponsoring at Julius Baer is appointed chief marketing officer of the bank. In his new role, he will be responsible for the consistency and effectiveness of marketing activities in Julius Baer's markets, working closely with regional teams and their decentralised marketing functions. He will support them in further aligning their activation strategies with Julius Baer's global brand positioning and communication. 

Marco Parroni joined Julius Baer in 2013, after a successful career of 25 years in the automotive industry where he worked for well-known brands such as Ferrari and Fiat Chrysler. Marco was instrumental in building up Julius Baer's sponsoring portfolio and initiating an ecosystem of global brand partnerships centred on the expression of innovation and progress.   

Antje Hembd will succeed Marco as Head Global Brand Partnerships & Sponsoring. Since joining Julius Baer in 2016, Antje has been responsible for the successful development of many of its global sponsoring platforms, including Formula E and the Champions Chess Tour, nurturing a strong collaboration with all brand partners. 

Larissa Alghisi Rubner, chief communications officer at Julius Baer, said: "These appointments reaffirm our commitment to effective brand building in our key markets. Together with our colleagues across the company, we have firmly established Julius Baer as the strongest brand in wealth management - a promise to our clients and stakeholders that we are firmly determined to keep." 

Robeco 

Robeco has appointed Ralf Oberbannscheidt as global head of thematic investment to lead a team managing €18.7bn of assets.
Effective from May, his role will focus on further developing the firm's active thematic investing offering. From Zurich, he will report to Mark van der Kroft, CIO fundamental and quant equity.

Oberbannscheidt joins from New York-based firm Global Thematic Partners, where he was a founding partner and portfolio manager of the global thematic and global agribusiness strategies for institutional mandates and sub-advised retail funds. 

Prior to that, he was senior global equities portfolio manager at DWS, formerly known as Deutsche Asset Management, from 1999 to 2010, based in Frankfurt and later in New York. 

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Commenting on the hire, van der Kroft said: "We are pleased to welcome Ralf to our organisation. He brings a wealth of relevant managerial and portfolio management knowledge that will be of great benefit to Robeco and our clients in the thematic investing offering."

Oberbannscheidt added: "Thematic investing is a great way for investors to take advantage of the structural socioeconomic changes or invest in the solution providers for sustainability challenges we all need to solve.

"I am thrilled to join, head, and further develop a team that has such an outstanding track record and reputation."

Crédit Agricole CIB 

Anne Hiebler has been appointed global head of mergers and acquisitions within the Global Investment Banking department of Crédit Agricole CIB, effective 20 March 2023.

She replaces Bertrand Peyrelongue, who has exercised his entitlement to retire. Based in Paris, Anne reports to Laurent Capes, head of global investment banking.

Hiebler has over 25 years of experience in advisory, M&A and ECM transactions. She began her career in 1995 at Banexi - BNP Paribas within the M&A department. In 2000, she joined Citigroup where she worked on mergers and acquisitions upper-mid and large cap transactions, ECM deals as well as coverage for large corporates. From 2010 to 2014, Anne successively joined two M&A advisory boutiques. 

Since June 2015, she has held the position of Managing Director at Natixis Partners where she worked on M&A transactions and MidCaps fundraising for Natixis clients and Private Equity funds.

BNY Mellon Investment Management

BNY Mellon Investment Management has named Richard Parkin as head of retirement, a newly created role within BNY Mellon Investment Management EMEA Limited (BNY Mellon IM EMEA).

He will focus on developing BNY Mellon IM EMEA's position in the retirement market and identifying opportunities to support clients through a consultative and solutions-based process. Richard will also enhance the intermediary and retail retirement proposition within BNY Mellon IM's investment firms, with specialist capabilities in fixed income, equities, and multi-asset. He will report to Michael Beveridge, Head of UK Intermediary Distribution at BNY Mellon IM.

He brings over three decades of experience in the retirement space. He joins from Richard Parkin Consulting, an independent consultancy he founded in January 2018 where he helped asset managers, pension providers and others respond to the rapidly changing retirement environment. Prior to this, he spent 15 years at Fidelity International in various roles including leading the response to pension freedom and building the workplace pension proposition.

This appointment builds on BNY Mellon IM's progress in the retirement space, following the recent launch of BNY Mellon FutureLegacy, a UK retirement relevant fund range consisting of five risk-rated sustainable multi-asset funds, which is managed by Newton Investment Management Limited (Newton), a BNY Mellon IM specialist equity and multi-asset investment firm with £83.4 billion of assets under management.

Parkin said:  "BNY Mellon IM is renowned for its strong pedigree in understanding and managing risk, a key consideration in effective retirement planning. I'm excited to be working across the business to help our clients develop their retirement planning approaches. As we face a challenging economic environment, and with the FCA Consumer Duty and the Retirement Income Advice Review on the horizon, now is the ideal time for BNY Mellon IM to support intermediaries in demonstrating the value of professional help."

Michael Beveridge, said: "We continue to see increasing demands from clients for products to help with planning for the future, and this planning will require a tailored approach. Richard's expertise within the retirement market will be invaluable to BNY Mellon IM and its investment firms, when supporting intermediary clients with a full range of solutions through this stage of the lifecycle".

Tumelo

Jon Lukomnik - one-time fiduciary for the five New York City pension funds and lauded by Forbes as one of the pioneers of modern corporate governance - is joining investor fintech Tumelo as an advisor.

He will provide strategic guidance and support as Tumelo pursues its mission to democratise shareholder voting.

Tumelo co-founder Will Goodwin said: "Jon brings a huge amount of experience to our Board of Advisors, helping us to develop products that solve real problems for our customers. As we expand into the US market, Jon will provide invaluable strategic support to the 

Lukomnik has consulted to institutional investors with aggregate assets of $1 trillion and has been the fiduciary for assets of more than $100bn (including the New York City pension funds). He is the managing partner of Sinclair Capital LLC, a strategic consultancy to institutional investors.

Among his many roles, he was for more than a decade the executive director of the IRRC Institute, is a former Pembroke Visiting Professor at the Judge Business School at Cambridge, serves on multiple Boards, and co-founded the International Corporate Governance Network. He was recently appointed the inaugural Fellow at the Sustainable Investing Research Initiative at the School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University.

He is co-author of Moving Beyond Modern Portfolio Theory: Investing That Matters and was three times named one of the 100 most influential people in American corporate governance by the National Association of Corporate Directors (USA).

Lukomnik said: "Professionally, I'm excited because Tumelo is one of the more exciting and innovative fintech companies, helping investors make their voices heard through the din of the capital markets. Personally, I find it reassuring that the leaders of Tumelo are two generations younger than I am. That we have such talented up-and-coming entrepreneurs in the field bodes well for the future."