The latest moves, appointments and personnel changes among wealth management and related organisations in the UK, the rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa and select international locations.

Ascot Lloyd
Ascot Lloyd, the UK wealth manager, has appointed Mary O’Connor as a non-executive director to join its group board.

O’Connor (pictured) is an experienced board-level executive with a track-record in leadership positions across the financial services sector, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Throughout a 30-year career, O’Connor has led and advised public and private-equity backed businesses.

A lawyer by background, O’Connor’s most recent leadership role was as the divisional CEO for capital advisory and placement at Howden Broking Group. Prior to this, O’Connor served as the acting CEO for KPMG UK where she was responsible for the firm’s strategic development. Whilst at KPMG UK, she also served in executive roles as chief risk officer and head of clients and markets, and sat on the KPMG UK board.

O’Connor has also served in leadership roles at Willis Towers Watson (WTW), laterally as divisional CEO, and initially as global head of financial institutions and group head of risk and compliance. She also sat on the boards of Willis Limited and Towers Watson Limited.

O’Connor has served at regulatory bodies, including as head of the approved persons and SIF Regime at the FCA. She started her career in the legal sector, with roles in the US and UK at prominent magic-circle firms.

Her NED appointments include Carne Group (appointed 2022) supporting asset managers on their funds’ governance lifestyle. Previously, she served as a NED and member of the audit, compliance and risk committees for The Charity Bank between 2013 and 2018.

“A proven leader at both management and board level, Mary’s expertise in driving growth and innovation will be a valuable asset as we continue to deliver on our core strategic priorities. With experience spanning the breadth of financial and professional services, Mary’s appointment reflects the continued ability of the business to attract leading talent in the market,” Mike Covell, chair of the Ascot Lloyd Group Board, said.

Ascot Lloyd has £10 billion ($12.69 billion) in funds under influence and provides financial planning, wealth management and corporate benefit solutions to more than 57,000 clients.

abrdn
abrdn has appointed Ben Tucker as business development director, covering discretionary wealth manager clients in London, to support new business growth. This is a new role reporting to Simon Cowan, head of UK wealth.

Tucker was previously at Janus Henderson Investors where he joined in 2010. Most recently he was associate sales director and a member of the discretionary sales team supporting a portfolio of London clients.

“Ben comes highly recommended by clients across London and we are looking forward to broadening and deepening our relationships with these clients, particularly as it relates to growing our Quantitative Investment Solutions and Outcome Focused Fixed Income ranges of funds which have been our top sellers this year with clients around the UK,” Fergus McCarthy, head of UK wholesale, abrdn, said.

Insight Investment
Insight Investment, a global asset and risk manager with £665.1 billion ($844.047 billion) under management, has hired Chandra Gopinathan as head of responsible investment research.

Gopinathan is responsible for leading Insight’s sustainability-related research activities and integrating research findings to improve decision-making. He is based in London and reports to Robert Sawbridge, head of responsible investment.

“Chandra has impressive experience gained over two decades across investment strategy, credit, stewardship, climate and Net Zero initiatives with a specific focus on fixed income,” Sawbridge said. “He has proven experience of implementing and delivering responsible investment research programmes in institutional markets and comes with an important understanding of asset owner requirements in this space.”

Prior to joining Insight, Chandra was a senior investment manager at Railpen where he co-led the credit strategy and manager selection team, analysing credit risk for inclusion in the investment process. He has developed industry guidelines for bondholders with regard to sustainability, chairing both the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), the Bondholder Stewardship working group and the Asset Owner Working Group of the Transition Pathway Initiative.

Insight is a subsidiary of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation, a global financial services company.

Gresham House
Gresham House, a specialist alternative asset manager, has appointed Hyewon Kong as sustainable investment director.

Based in London, Kong will oversee Gresham House’s sustainable investment team and strategy to advance environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts across Gresham’s strategies.

Kong, who has more than 20 years of experience in sustainable investment across Asia, Europe, and North America, was most recently head of responsible investing at the Investment Management Corporation of Ontario (IMCO). Prior to that, she was assistant vice president and head of ESG at AGF Investments, where she managed about $600 million through the firm’s global sustainable and impact investing strategies.

Kong has also served on board and committees throughout her career, including as an investment committee member at The Atmospheric Fund (Ontario Government Province Endowment) and as an environmental finance advisory committee member at the University of Toronto. She is currently a member of the board of directors at University of British Columbia (UBC) Investment Management and the co-founder and chair of the Canadian Responsible Investment Working Group.

“Hyewon has an outstanding track record both as an investor as well as building and leading sustainable investment portfolios and research platforms. She shares our view and approach to delivering sustainable outcomes for clients with attractive financial returns on capital,” Tony Dalwood, CEO at Gresham House, said. “Hyewon’s extensive experience of working with institutional investors across the globe will be hugely valuable to our team as we look to establish Gresham House as the manager of choice for sustainable investment client solutions and hence to accelerate our growth ambitions.”

Gresham House says sustainability is at the core of its investment strategies, which it aims to achieve through investments in sustainable infrastructure, natural capital, battery storage and renewable energy, forestry, and real estate.