Tilney Smith & Williamson 

Tilney Smith & Williamson, the wealth management and professional services group which is set to re-brand to Evelyn Partners in the summer, has named Neil Coxhead as chief executive of its host ACD and fund administration business. 

Coxhead has over 30 years' experience in the UK funds industry and joins from asset management servicing group Waystone where he was managing director. 

He began working in operational roles with RBS Trustees in 1989, spending a decade with the firm before joining The Bank of New York. He gained experience through roles in operations and client services before taking a senior relationship manager role, covering UK asset managers.

In his twelve years at Citigroup and Brown Brothers Harriman, Coxhead created and led relationship management and sales functions and built relationships with UK-based investment managers. His move to CACEIS Bank gave him business management experience within a highly-regulated corporate structure and he led the UK Branch during the Brexit transition.

He succeeds James Gordon who is retiring at the end of July after nearly 16 years at Tilney Smith & Williamson and almost 35 years in the industry. James joined the firm in 2006 as director and head of the Investment management Settlement operations and has led its ACD and fund administration business since 2009. 

Chris Woodhouse, group chief executive at Tilney Smith & Williamson said: "We continue to pursue our growth plans for our host ACD and fund administration business. This represents an important part of our business, providing host ACD and fund administration services to the UK funds industry from our centre of excellence in Glasgow." 

He added: "I'd also like to thank James for the considerable contribution that he has made over many years in helping to build the successful, profitable host ACD and fund administration business that we have today. I wish James well for his retirement plans." 

Manulife Investment Management 

Manulife Investment Management has appointed Jessie Liu to the position of head of transactions and portfolio management, Real Estate, Private Markets, Asia.  

In her new role, Liu will report to Marc Feliciano, global head of real estate, private markets, and will join Manulife Investment Management's global real estate leadership team. 

Liu will lead the sourcing, acquisition, and new market development of real estate investment in the region, taking over the transaction and portfolio management responsibilities from Kenny Lam who will be departing the firm in June. 

Since joining Manulife Investment Management in 2019, she has led and completed multiple investment transactions in key Asia markets across different property types including logistics, commercial and multi-family.

She will continue to be based in Hong Kong.  

Prior to joining Manulife, she has held senior roles at China Resources Land Private Equity and Yue Yuen Industrial responsible for real estate investments and strategies.  She also had experience working in the real estate team of the Blackstone Group and at Merrill Lynch Real Estate Principal Investments before her in-house roles.  

Credit Suisse Asset Management 

Credit Suisse Asset Management has appointed Andrew Jackson as head of fixed income.

Jackson, who will take up his role in June, previously worked at Federated Hermes, where he had served as head of fixed income since 2017, and as a fund manager. 

Prior to this, Jackson was chief investment officer at Cairn Capital. 

In his new role he will be based in Zurich, reporting to Filippo Rima, head of investment at Credit Suisse Asset Management.

Aviva Investors

Aviva Investors has named Rakesh Girdharlal to the newly created role of Head of Liability-Driven Investment (LDI) and Liquidity, starting April 2022. He will report to Caroline Hedges, Head of Credit.

Formally Head of LDI at Aviva Investors, he will be assuming additional responsibility for the firm's liquidity business following Caroline Hedges' promotion to Head of Credit in September 2021. He will retain his responsibilities for LDI portfolios, where he manages pension fund and insurance LDI mandates in excess of £20 billion.

Girdharlal joined Aviva Investors as Senior LDI Portfolio Manager in 2014, before assuming the role of Head of LDI in 2018.

Prior to this, he was Asset and Liability Management (ALM) executive at Cardano risk management, where he was responsible for LDI portfolio management and ALM for defined benefit pension schemes.

He has also held positions at Mercer, where he advised defined benefit pension schemes on all aspects relating to funding, monitoring and governance; PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Liberty Life.

IQ-EQ

IQ-EQ has today announced the appointment of Sally Alayarian as new group chief risk officer. 

She will be based in the Netherlands and will be added to the IQ-EQ's Group Management Team, where she will be responsible for overseeing the Group's current risk management and compliance frameworks and promoting the Group's focus on risk conduct and culture.  

Alayarian previously spent six years as global director risk management & internal audit for a multinational professional services firm based in Amsterdam. 

She has also operated as an independent director advising boards and regulatory bodies on the optimisation and evolution of integrated risk and control frameworks, and has held executive positions in the banking sector.

Highvern 

Highvern has hired Phil Godley as non-executive director on its senior group holding company board. 

Well known in industry, Godley is a chartered accountant with wide-ranging governance experience gained over more than 20 years working in Finance and Professional Services. 

Most notably he was previously an executive director of a UK FTSE 250 company and a director of regulated financial services businesses in Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Ireland, Jersey and Guernsey. 

Since then, he has acted as advisor to a number of leading financial services providers, data companies and institutional investors focusing on commercial growth, data, product and technology. Phil also participates in competitive AI events and has provided AI education events in professional sectors.

Martin Hall, chief executive at Highvern, said that "having recently extended our international footprint, Phil's strategic contribution and background will be a significant addition to our future planning and direction".

Godley is one of a number of strategic senior hires to join the Highvern group recently, following its expansion into the UK and Ireland and acquisitions in the Guernsey and Swiss marketplaces.