PEOPLE MOVES: Axa, Tilney Smith & Williamson, Oak Group

Insurance giant makes c-suite changes, while UK wealth manager names COO

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Axa

Frédéric de Courtois will join the insurance giant on 1 August as deputy chief executive, in charge of finance and investments, risk management, strategy, and ceded reinsurance.

He served as vice president of insurance Europe at Generali.

George Stansfield, deputy chief executive and group general secretary, will be in charge of legal, human resources, audit, compliance and public affairs, will also oversee communication, brand and sustainability.

Etienne Bouas-Laurent, group chief financial officer, will become chief executive of Axa Belgium, effective 1 July.

He will replace Jef Van In who will take over a role to be announced shortly.

Alban de Mailly Nesle, group chief risk and investment officer, will become group chief financial officer while continuing to lead group investments, effective 1 July.

The group has also named Axa France chief executive, Jacques de Peretti, as a senior adviser to the group chief executive.
Patrick Cohen, chief executive of Axa Italy, will be appointed chief executive of Axa France, effective 3 May.

Also, Benoît Claveranne, chief executive of Axa International and New Markets (INM), has decided to pursue new opportunities outside of the group.

Going forward, the African and Asian operations of INM will report to Gordon Watson, chief executive of Axa Asia, and the other INM operations, as well as Axa Partners and Axa Next will report to Antimo Perretta, chief executive of Axa Europe.

Tilney Smith & Williamson

The UK wealth manager has appointed Mayank Prakash as its chief operations officer effective from 1 April.

Prakash joined the group as chief technology officer in September 2020 following completion of the merger of Tilney and Smith & Williamson

He takes on the role from Donald Reid who is retiring at the end of May after nearly 11 years with the business.

Reid will take-on a part-time advisory role following his retirement.

Also, the firm has hired financial planner Paul Barker.

He joins the team in London reporting to Leon Buckley, partner of financial planning. Barker was previously at Cavendish Medical, where he spent nearly six years specialising in advising senior staff working within the NHS.

Oak Group

The private client service provider has appointed Graham McCormack as chief executive.

He has been acting chief executive since Stuart Platt-Ransom left the role earlier this month.

McCormack previously held the position of chief operating officer at Oak Group.

Shard Capital

The wealth manager has expanded its UK Tier 1 (Investor) Visa team with the appointment of Jacky Ng to the newly created role of chief investment officer for its existing investment committee.

Ng was most recently a multi-asset class senior portfolio manager at Kleinwort Hambros.

Equiom

David Foster has been named group head of private wealth.

He was most recently vice president and head of fiduciary services at RBC Wealth Management International.

Phoenix Group

The UK savings and retirement business has named Wendy Cunningham as HR chief operating officer.

She joins Phoenix from Experian, where she was the global people technology, analytics and talent acquisition director.

Quilter International

The life arm of Quilter has named Cheryl Gleeson as head of international marketing.

Gleeson was most recently head of marketing for AAM Advisory, the Singapore-based financial advice business of Quilter.

AHR Private Wealth

The international advice firm has hired Sammy Barrett to both develop and lead its property division.

Barrett joins AHR following five years in the property sector across a variety of roles, including head of property investment at DeVere Group.

Sandringham Financial Partners

Richard Framp has joined the advice firm as an advising partner.

He has been an adviser for over 22 years. Framp spent the last seven years working for an unnamed family run independent financial firm.

Equilibrium Financial Planning

The Cheshire-based IFA firm has appointed Rachel Griffiths as head of marketing.

She joined from RADA Business, where she was head of leadership and the north west office.

Blackfinch Group

The UK investment firm has named Paul Lanigan as distribution strategy director, according to his Linkedin profile.

He joins from Standard Life Aberdeen, where he was head of region.

Liontrust

Deputy head of multi-asset Sheldon MacDonald and senior investment manager Nathan Sweeney are both leaving the firm, just four months after joining through the acquisition of Architas.

MacDonald and Sweeney joined Liontrust at the end of October last year when the deal to buy the Architas’ UK multi-asset team completed.

The pair had been at Architas since in 2010 where MacDonald was deputy chief investment officer and Sweeney was a senior investment manager.

On joining Liontrust, MacDonald was made deputy head of multi-asset under John Husselbee while Sweeney remained senior investment manager.

Liontrust confirmed that MacDonald and Sweeney are currently on gardening leave and no longer managing any of the multi-asset funds. Both are seeking employment according to their LinkedIn profiles.