UK pension fund veteran Mike Weston (pictured) has become the chief executive of LGPS Central, the asset manager for the pooled assets of a number of local government schemes.
Weston was previously chief executive of the Pensions Infrastructure Platform until January 2019 and previously chief investment officer of the Daily Mail and General Trust pension funds.
He has also been a portfolio manager for Hermes Investment Management and Mercury Asset Management, a firm since bought by Merrill Lynch and then BlackRock.
LGPS Central pools £45 billion (€51 billion) for nine schemes in the UK’s Midlands region.
Joanne Segars, chair of LGPS Central, said Weston brings a “wealth of understanding of investment management, occupational pension schemes and the LGPS [Local Government Pension Scheme].
“He joins at an exciting time for the company as our assets under management grow and will make a great contribution to developing the pool alongside our partner funds,” she added.
Weston said that pensions pooling among LGPS funds, which is a fairly recent development, provided an “important route to deliver investment efficiencies and opportunities to partner funds”.
“Much progress has already been made, but there is more to do,” Weston, who starts the role on March 7,said.
LGPS Central recently reached full funding for its first private equity fund.
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