Monday Movers

Aon Hewitt names co-CEOs, Schroders lures BlackRock portfolio manager, International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, BNY Mellon, Barings, State Street, Fidelity, Kempen Capital, Old Mutual

Insurer Aon said today Kristi Savacool and Baljit Dail will become the new co-chief executives of Aon Hewitt, replacing Russ Fradin who is leaving the firm to join SunGard.

Savacool was previously chief executive of benefits administration and Dail was chief executive of consulting. They will begin their new role immediately and report to Greg Case, president and CEO of Aon. (Click here to read full story)

BlackRock has been hit by another senior management departure after its European head of structured solutions portfolio management quit to join a rival firm.

Kate Jones will join Schroders as head of investment services to take investment responsibility for developing the firm's next generation global investment operating platform. She will report to Schroders group chief investment officer Alan Brown.

At BlackRock, Jones was responsible for the portfolio management of liability-driven investment, asset allocation mandates and synthetic overlays.

Jones' move to Schroders is the latest in a line of senior departures from BlackRock over recent months. In January, it was announced head of defined contribution sales Emma Douglas had left to join Mercer to help launch and head up the consultant's corporate wrap offering (Global Pensions, 21 January, 2011).

In December, Nicolaas Marais, the former global head of active portfolio management in BlackRock's multi-asset client solutions group, quit to join Schroders as head of its multi-asset solutions team (Global Pensions, 13 December, 2010).

This also follows the departure of BlackRock head of European Middle East and Africa institutional business Mike O'Brien who left the firm in June last year (Global Pensions; 25 June 2010) and was hired by J.P. Morgan Asset Management as global head of its institutional client group.

It also comes after Andrew Dyson, the former global head of BlackRock's institutional asset management quit the business following a major business review which dissolved the position.

 Pioneer Investments has appointed current head of western Europe Fabien Madar as head of the Netherlands and Nordics. (Click here to read the full story)

State Street has appointed Maria Cantillon as global head of sales for the firm's alternative investment solutions business. She will be based in London and report to Scott Fitzgerald, head of sales for State Street's Global Services Americas business. Cantillon was previously head of alternative investment managers at BNP Paribas Securities Services in London.

The firm also hired Craig Butterworth as head of fixed income sales for Europe, Middle East and Africa. He will have a special focus on the firm's fixed income rates business which was launched in 2010. The rates business provides fixed income rates trading to institutional investors primarily in the UK and US. He will be based in London and report to Jon Thoresen, head of fixed income rates for EMEA and Peter Turk, global head of fixed income sale. Butterworth joins from the Royal bank of Scotland where he was managing director and head of flow rates sales, UK funds and hedge funds.

David Murray, chairman of the board of Australia's A$64bn Future Fund, will step down from his role as chairman of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds. He will be replaced by Jin Liqun, chairman of the China Investment Corporation, who will hold the position for a two year term, the IFSWF said. The organisation announced the changes at its third annual meeting in Beijing last week.

Officials at the IFSWF also said it would create a new secretariat role to be temporarily based at the International Monetary Fund. The IFSWF said a funded secretariat role will "allow us to participate more actively in work on issues relevant to SWFs, to help promote the Forum's mission, and to engage in a more active dialogue with recipient countries, relevant international institutions, policy makers, academia, and the private sector".

Mitchell Harris has been appointed to the newly created role of president of investment management at BNY Mellon. The investment management business includes BNY Mellon Asset Management and BNY Mellon Wealth Management. Harris, who had also been interim head of the asset management business, will also now be part of the firm's executive committee. He reports to Curtis Arledge, vice chairman of BNY Mellon and chief executive of investment management.

Harris will retain his role as BNY Asset Management's head of fixed income, cash and currency group.

Baring Asset Management has appointed Wilfred Sit as chief investment officer of its Asia business. In the newly created role, Sit will lead the Hong Kong-based equity team and work with Barings' head of Asian equities Colin Ng and head of Hong Kong China equities Agnes Deng to build on the investment record of Barings in Asian investment markets. The firm manages more than $13bn in Asian equities. (Global Pensions; 11 May 2011)

Fidelity International has promoted Judy Marlinski to president of the Japan business and scooped the former CEO of BGI's Asia business for a new managing director of Asia ex-Japan role.

Marlinski is currently head of project management in Tokyo but will take on the role of president on 1 June. Previously she was chief operating officer for investments. Marlinski will replace Thomas Balk who will take on a new role in the UK. The firm also said Mark Talbot will be joining on 27 June to help grow the firm's footprint in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. He was previously the chief executive of Asia ex-Japan for Barclays Global Investors in Hong Kong. He will report to Arne Lindman, chief executive for Asia Pacific. (Global Pension; 13 May 2011)

Arnaud Maricourt will join Kempen Capital Management as senior corporate analysts within the investment grade credit team in Amsterdam in June. He will report to Richard Klijnstra, director overseeing the long-only and absolute return European credit strategies. Maricourt will join from AXA IM where he was a senior portfolio manager in the structured corporate credit team.

Old Mutual Asset Management (OMAM) US has named Steve Belgrad as chief financial officer and Aidan Riordan as director of affiliate development as part of a series of managerial changes. Belgrad will join on 1 June and is currently CFO at HarbourVest Global Private Equity. Riordan will join 1 July from Calvert Street Capital Partners. (Global Pensions; 11 May 2011)