(February 14, 2014) — Hemal Naran has joined the Government Employees’ Pension Fund (GEPF) as head of investments and actuarial services, the institution confirmed.
Naran, who appeared on aiCIO’s inaugural Forty under Forty list in 2012, had been fund manager for alternative assets at the £13 billion British Steel Pension Fund—one of the UK’s largest—between July 2008 and the end of 2012. After this, he spent a year consulting before returning full-time to South Africa, where he spent his childhood, to take on the investment role at the country’s largest pension.
Prior to the British Steel Pension, he worked for HSBC’s investment advisory business in London.
Naran joins the South African fund while a question mark remains over the status of the its CIO and aiCIO Power 100 member John Oliphant, who was suspended in October.
Last month, the GEPF’s Acting Principal Executive Officer Joelene Moodley wrote a letter to the Business Day newspaper, outlining the situation.
“Towards the end of last year, the GEPF’s board of trustees confirmed that issues had been brought to its attention that required it to order a review of some internal operational and supply-chain processes,” Moodley wrote. “It confirmed that disciplinary processes were under way following a comprehensive forensic investigation. Further, it requested that in order to respect the rights of all parties involved, we allow the disciplinary process to run its course.”
The matter was reported locally as centring on agreements over communication and marketing, rather than investments.
Moodley said the matter would soon be resolved. Representatives for the GEPF said to date there had been no further development.
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