Lombard International
Lombard International Assurance has appointed Monica Risam to the role of general counsel for its european operations. She will report to European chief executive Axel Hörger.
Risam will lead a multi-disciplinary team, including the legal, regulatory affairs and company secretariat, risk and compliance functions.
In addition, Risam will join the executive committee and will be involved in developing and implementing the company’s growth strategy.
Risam joins Lombard from Aviva, where she led the UK life legal and company secretarial teams.
During her six years with Aviva, Risam also held the positions of general counsel, Aviva Group and general counsel, Aviva Europe.
WH Ireland
Wealth management firm WH Ireland has appointed Paul Jones, previously a Brewin Dolphin executive, as chief operating officer.
Jones will be responsible for all aspects of WH Ireland’s outsourced relationships and for the middle office and IT functions within the company. He will report directly to the chief executive Richard Killingbeck.
Jones started his career at Lloyds TSB and has since worked for Skandia Investments and Axa Life and Pensions where he held several senior positions including head of advisory distribution and head of regional operations.
For the last five years Jones was head of transformation and co-head of the London office as well as being chief of staff and sitting on the executive committee at Brewin Dolphin.
John Hancock Financial
Two new leadership appointments have been made to the John Hancock Insurance team by its parent company Manulife. Brooks Tingle has been named president and chief executive while Linda Levyne will become senior vice president and head of sales and distribution.
Both Tingle and Levyne have been serving in these respective roles on an interim basis since last summer.
Levyne will report to Tingle, while he will report to John Hancock Financial president and chief executive Marianne Harrison.
Tingle joined John Hancock in 1987 and has held a several senior positions, including senior vice president of marketing and strategy for the insurance team.
Before taking up the new role Levyne was vice president of national accounts and vitality sales for the insurance team. Before joining John Hancock in 2011 Levyne spent more than 20 years in various management positions in the life insurance industry.
Aviva
Aviva Investors has expanded its emerging markets debt team with the hire of Carmen Altenkirch as a sovereign analyst.
In this newly-created role, she will be based in London and report to Liam Spillane, head of emerging market debt.
Altenkirch has more than 10 years’ experience analysing fundamental drivers of emerging market countries. She will largely focus on frontier economies, with a broader remit across the investable EMD universe.
She will work closely with hard-currency fund managers Aaron Grehan and Michael McGill. Altenkirch worked previously at Axa Investment Managers and Fitch Ratings.
Metlife
Metlife has named executive vice president James Reid as head of its global employee benefits (GEB) business.
Reid is responsible for accelerating GEB’s growth by partnering with MetLife’s regional offices and expanding relationships with top financial institutions and global employee benefit brokers and consultants. Reid will also lead select critical growth initiatives for the company.
Reid joined MetLife in 2012 and has more than 25 years of experience in health and employee benefits, and P&L ownership. To date he has held several leadership roles within MetLife’s US Group Benefits organization, most recently spearheading Regional and Small Business Solutions.
Prior to MetLife, he spent more than 20 years at Aetna, with leadership roles in its healthcare and voluntary business groups.
Carey Olsen
Offshore law firm Carey Olsen has continued the expansion of its finance practice in the Cayman Islands with the appointment of attorney Adam Bathgate as counsel.
Bathgate specialises in all aspects of finance and corporate work, with particular expertise in the areas of leveraged and acquisition finance, fund finance and structured finance.
His experience includes working for Clifford Chance in Munich and London before moving to the Cayman Islands in 2010 to work at another offshore law firm.
Associate Hannah Diss has also joined Carey Olsen’s Cayman Islands finance team, relocating from Dentons in the UK. Diss practice focuses on aviation leasing and finance, export credit finance and Islamic finance.
The latest appointments follow the arrival of finance attorney Dylan Wiltermuth who joined the firm as counsel in November.
Unicorn Asset Management
Unicorn Asset Management has made two assistant fund manager appointments.
Alex Game, CFA, has been appointed assistant fund manager to the Unicorn UK growth fund and will work alongside its lead manager, Fraser Mackersie.
Max Ormiston, CFA, has been appointed assistant fund manager to the Unicorn outstanding british companies fund and will support director and senior fund manager, Chris Hutchinson.
Game and Ormiston have been members of the Unicorn investment team since joining the firm in 2014.
Both will continue in their current roles working alongside Chris Hutchinson on the management and development of the successful and growing Unicorn AIM inheritance tax portfolio service.
