The board of directors at Switzerland-headquartered Partners Group, the global private markets investment manager, will propose additions to the board - including changes within the chief executive office and executive board - at the firm's annual general meeting of shareholders on 2 May.

The board will suggest that Steffen Meister, CEO since 2005, joins as a full-time executive member, resulting in the appointments of Christoph Rubeli and André Frei as co-CEOs from 1 July. Rubeli and Frei have been with the firm for over 14 and 12 years respectively.

In his new role, Meister will chair the business development committee and focus on the firm’s major business, corporate and organisational initiatives, the firm said in a statement. He will also join the risk and audit, and nomination and compensation committees, as well as becoming a member of two newly-formed strategy and markets committees. These will be chaired by Alfred Gantner and Urs Wietlisbach respectively.

Additionally, the board plans to propose that Patrick Ward - who recently retired as advisory director and chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management International - joins as a non-executive member and a member of the markets committee, with the title of chairman for the UK and Middle East. He will be based in London.

It is further planned that the client services business department will be led by Reto Schwager, partner, and Raphael Meier, managing director, effective from 1 July. Schwager will also join the executive board along with Andreas Knecht, general counsel and partner of the firm.

The changes remain subject to regulatory approval.

Besides its headquarters, Partners Group has offices in San Francisco, New York, São Paulo, London, Guernsey, Paris, Luxembourg, Munich, Dubai, Singapore, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and Sydney.

The firm has over €28 billion (about $36.4 billion) in investment programmes under management in private equity, private real estate, private infrastructure and debt.