Art by Changyu Zou

Investment Companies Name New CEOs

Five investment companies that serve defined contribution retirement plans have announced CEO changes.

Russell Investments Group LLC, an investment and outsourced chief investment officer firm, hired Zach Buchwald away from BlackRock to be its new CEO and chairman of its board of directors, effective May 1.

Naïm Abou-Jaoudé of New York Life will move from his position as CEO of Candriam, one of the company’s European asset management subsidiaries, to CEO of its investment arm, New York Life Investment Management. Candriam has $149 billion in assets under management; New York Life’s investment division has $371 billion in AUM. He begins his new role on May 1.

Invesco Ltd. promoted Andrew Schlossberg (photo) to president and CEO, as of June 30, from his current post as managing director and head of the Americas. Current Invesco president and CEO Marty Flanagan, in both roles since 2005, announced his retirement, effective June 30, though he will continue as chairman emeritus through 2024.

Wayne Park (photo) was appointed CEO of John Hancock Retirement U.S., a company of Manulife Investment Management, in Boston. In this role, he will head the company’s retirement plan and recordkeeping business, where his responsibilities include sales, relationship management, product, strategy, marketing, operations and technology.

Park reports to Aimee DeCamillo, head of global retirement at Manulife Investment Management, according to the firm, which noted that he was hired for his decades of experience working alongside intermediaries, plan sponsors and participants. He replaces Sue Reibel, who retired this past December after a nearly 30-year career at Manulife.

Brooks Tingle became CEO of John Hancock, April 1, joining Manulife’s executive leadership team. He served as president and CEO of John Hancock Insurance and as the global leader of behavioral insurance for Manulife. Marianne Harrison, the former president and CEO, retired after 20 years with the company. Tingle reports to Roy Gori, Manulife president and CEO.

Tingle led John Hancock’s embrace of behavioral insurance, offering savings and rewards for customers’ healthy living. He also sits on the boards of John Hancock’s insurance companies, which include John Hancock Life Insurance Co. and John Hancock Life Insurance Co. of New York.

The Capital Group Companies Inc.’s chairman and CEO, Tim Armour, will step down from the management committee in October. Replacing him as CEO will be Mike Gitlin (photo), currently head of fixed income for Capital Group, who will additionally become president. Rob Lovelace, vice chair and president, is also stepping down from the committee. New CEO Gitlin ascends to the job after eight years at Capital Group, during which the firm became one of the largest active fixed-income managers, according to the firm, with about $450 billion in assets under management. Gitlin also oversees global trading and has been part of the company’s expansion efforts in Europe and Asia. Prior to Capital Group, he served as head of U.S. equity sales for Citigroup Global Markets Inc., as well as heading Asia-Pacific sales trading, Asia-Pacific cash equities and international cash equities.

Hess Moves up at DCIIA

The Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association­ Retirement­ Research Center appointed Pam Hess (photo) as its new executive director. DCIIA includes advisory councils staffed with some of the industry’s largest retirement plan advisories, according to the organization. Hess joined the RRC in 2021 as vice president of research. In her new position, she succeeds Warren Cormier, the center’s founding executive director, who will remain involved as director emeritus with a focus on custom research done exclusively for one organization, DCIIA reports.

This past November, DCIIA announced the formation of three new advisory councils to provide stakeholder input and guidance on topics important to the retirement industry. Hess played an “instrumental role in conceptualizing and developing the advisory councils” with the RRC leadership and staff, said a spokesperson by way of email.

Hess will identify and run key research initiatives, receiving input from both retirement plan advisories and institutional consultants.

OneDigital Hires New Director

OneDigital Investment Advisors, a subsidiary of OneDigital, hired Matthew J. Hedley (photo) as director of retirement services. Hedley joins OneDigital’s retirement and wealth team after serving as director, lead consultant retirement plan advisory with Brockenbrough, where he led the for-profit and not-for-profit retirement plan strategies and solutions for the firm’s institutional clients. His expertise there included participant outcome optimization consulting, fee benchmarking, legislative and regulatory updates, and investment analysis.

The appointment accompanies the transitioning of Brockenbrough’s 401(k) and 403(b) retirement plan advisory businesses to OneDigital, according to the latter’s announcement. Hedley brings with him over 30 401(k) and 403(b) plan sponsors, representing $320 million in assets under manage­ment. Following the transition of accounts, OneDigital Investment Advisors’ total assets under manage­ment will be $108.4 billion, representing over 1 million ­participants and 41,000 individual accounts

Lockton’s Chief Diversity Officer

Lockton Companies, which provide risk management, insurance, employee benefits consulting and retirement services, promoted Stephanie Robinson (photo) to chief diversity officer. Robinson takes the helm from Brian Roberts, who has headed the development and execution of Lockton’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategy as chief diversity officer while also leading the company’s Midwest Series as chief operations officer.

Robinson joined Lockton in February 2022 as director of DEI after building and leading that effort at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City. She describes her work in the field as “defining strategy and creating DEI programs that align with and support corporate objectives, engage employees, capitalize on organizational strengths and optimize performance.”

In the community, Robinson currently works within Jackson County [Missouri] CASA [Court Appointed Special Advocates]. She also worked in human resources at UMB Financial, H&R Block, Cerner Corp. and Quest Diagnostics.

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