Investment Week

Aviva Investors hires NN Investment Partners' Robertson as head of multi-strategy funds

Ian Pizer steps down from his role as head of investment strategy

Aviva Investors has hired Mark Robertson from NN Investment Partners
Aviva Investors has hired Mark Robertson from NN Investment Partners
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Former NN Investment Partners' head of multi-asset portfolios Mark Robertson has joined Aviva Investors as head of multi-strategy funds.

Robertson will also act as a portfolio manager across the AIMS Target Return, Target Income and Fixed Income strategies, as head of investment strategy and current Target Return and Target Income manager Ian Pizer has stepped down.

Aviva multi-asset funds turn 'defensive' amid tightening liquidity

Pizer, whose role will be taken up in the interim by senior economist and strategist Michael Grady, will now work for Aviva Investors on a part-time basis, focusing solely on investment strategy.

Reporting to multi-asset and macro CIO Peter Fitzgerald, Robertson joins after seven years with NN Investment Partners where he was most recently responsible for total return and balanced portfolios, encompassing €14bn (£12.5bn) in AUM.

Robertson previously spent five years as senior multi-asset portfolio manager at ING Investment Management in Sydney, Australia.

Fitzgerald said: "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."

The appointment follows a raft of other multi-asset and macro hires at Aviva Investors in 2018, including Kevin O'Nolan and Guillaume Paillat, who joined as multi-asset portfolio managers from Fidelity and First State Investments respectively.

In addition, Patrick Bartholet, Katarina Cohrs and David Nowakowski have joined as multi-asset strategists.

Hunker down or full steam ahead?

Aviva Investors said in a statement it intends to expand the strategy team further with the appointment of Ombretta Signori, who will join in October from AXA Investment Managers as a multi-asset strategist.

Going forward, the named managers on the AIMS Target Return fund are Fitzgerald, Robertson and James McAlevey, while AIMS Target Income will be managed by Fitzgerald, Robertson and Ahmed Behdenna. The named managers on AIMS Fixed Income are McAlevey, Robertson, Orla Garvey and Joubeen Hurren.

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