Aviva Investors has appointed a head of multi-strategy funds as its head of investment strategy steps down.
Mark Robertson joins from NN Investment Partners (NNIP) in the Netherlands where he spent seven years, most recently as head of multi-asset portfolios.
At Aviva Investors he will be a named manager on all three funds in the Aviva Investors Multi-Strategy (Aims) range: Aims Target Return, Aims Target Income and Aims Fixed Income.
He will be based in London and report to Peter Fitzgerald, chief investment officer, multi-asset and macro (pictured).
Robertson has 18 years’ experience in asset management. At NNIP he was responsible for €14bn in assets under management across total return and balanced portfolios.
Prior this this, he spent five years as senior multi-asset portfolio manager at ING Investment Management in Sydney, Australia.
Fitzgerald said: “I am delighted to welcome Mark to Aviva Investors. In addition to a wealth of experience managing absolute-return strategies, Mark’s work in applying behavioural finance and Big Data techniques to the portfolio management process will bring a new dimension to the team.”
Pizer steps down
Aviva Investors also announced that Ian Pizer has decided to step down from his role as head of investment strategy and as a portfolio manager on Aims Target Return and Aims Target Income.
He will now work for Aviva Investors on a part-time basis, focusing solely on investment strategy.
Michael Grady, who joined Aviva Investors in 2015 as senior economist and strategist, has been appointed interim head of investment strategy.
Other hires
Aviva Investors has made several hires to bolster its multi-asset and macro team this year.
It recently hired Kevin O’Nolan as multi-asset portfolio manager from Fidelity; Guillaume Paillat as multi-asset portfolio manager from First State Investments; and Patrick Bartholet, Katarina Cohrs and David Nowakowski, all as multi-asset strategists.
In addition, the firm said Ombretta Signori is joining in October as a multi-asset strategist from Axa Investment Managers.
