Monday Movers

Kentucky Retirement System, Mercer, PensionsFirst, Towers Watson, Northern Trust, J.P. Morgan

The $13bn Kentucky Retirement System has fired executive director Mike Burnside and named a new chairwoman.

The board of trustees voted to terminate Burnside at a meeting on 7 April, but did not provide a reason. In a release, the pension fund said: "The Board members extended their thank you to Mike for three years of valued service and leadership." Bill Thielen, chief operating officer, will serve as interim executive director.

The board also voted to appoint Jennifer Elliot as chairwoman. She replaced Randy Overstreet. "KRS has faced several challenging years. The Board's decision to take a new leadership direction will position the agency to have a lasting impact on the 250 KRS staff members and the 318,000 members that KRS serves," Elliott said.

Mercer has appointed Patrick Race to head its UK Investment Consulting business, replacing Fiona Dunsire who has stepped back from the role.
In addition to the day-to-day management of the business, Race  will lead its UK executive team and will also sit on the leadership team for Mercer UK.

For the last four years, he has been responsible for the investment consulting teams in Birmingham, Windsor, Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh and brings more than 20 years of consulting and leadership experience to the role.

This most recent appointment comes less than a week after Mercer announced Julie Humphries as its global defined contribution consulting leader. (Global Pensions; 5 April 2011)

Humphries is currently Mercer's retirement, risk and finance (RRF) market business leader in the US Southwest/Southeast, and will stay in that role until a replacement in found. She replaces Barbara Marder, who created the position in 2007 and is also leader of the firm's international consulting group. Marder will continue as head of international consulting.

Humphries reports to Asghar Alam, global head of Mercer's investment consulting business and Simon O'Regan, global leader of Mercer's RRF business.

UK risk management firm PensionsFirst has made its second North American hire to help it grow its business in the US and Canada. Robert Wilen was appointed principal and will focus on business development, marketing and client relationship management.

Wilen joined from Aon Hewitt where he was senior executive leading their east retirement market team and serving on the global risk services team. He will be based in New York and report to North America chief executive Alan Colner.

Colner himself took the post only in February when the firm expanded in North America. (Global Pensions; 2 February, 2011)

Towers Watson has poached Helen Dowsey from rival consultant Aon Hewitt.
Dowsey has been hired as a senior investment consultant to bolster Towers Watson's DC business. She rejoins Towers Watson having previously worked there as a senior consultant in 2005 - then Watson Wyatt - before she joined Aon Hewitt - then Aon Consulting - as a principal in 2008.

Towers Watson EMEA head of investment Chris Ford said: "I am very pleased to welcome Helen to the firm again. Her appointment comes at a time of increasing demand from clients for DC solutions and her 20 years of diverse experience will be a great addition to our team."

Northern Trust has appointed Margaret Law as head of client services for its asset servicing business in North Asia (ex-China). Law, who will be based in Hong Kong, was previously manager of Hong Kong operations for Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

"Margaret Law is an industry veteran who has a wealth of experience serving sophisticated institutional clients, including global asset managers," said Teresa Parker, chief executive officer of the Asia Pacific region for Northern Trust. (Global Pensions; 7 April 2011)

J.P. Morgan Worldwide Securities Services has hired Rene Wiegel as managing director and head of business development for Benelux. He joins from BNY Mellon where he was head of sales for Benelux and Switzerland.