Peter Branner Hired to Assume CIO Role at Abrdn

Peter Branner

Peter Branner will join Abrdn, the £508.4 billion ($625.18 billion) asset manager, as CIO on May 1, according to a press release. Branner will report to Chris Demetriou and Rene Buehlmann, Abrdn co-CEOs of investments..

Abrdn’s previous CIO, Rod Paris, retired at the end of 2021, and the company operated without a CIO in 2022.

Branner’s hiring is a continued effort bythe firm which rebranded from Standard Life Aberdeen plc in 2021 following the 2017 merger of Standard Life and Aberdeen Asset Management, to “re-shape the investments vector,” according to the release. “By moving away from operating across a broad waterfront, the business is placing more emphasis on its core strengths, simplifying the product offering, increasing efficiency, and improving investment performance. Branner will ensure that we build a culture of innovation, learning and continuous improvement across our global investment teams.”

Branner joins Abrdn from Denmark’s APG Asset Management, one of the largest global pension investors in Europe, where as CIO he had been responsible for investment leadership and oversight of public and private markets.

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“I am delighted to be joining abrdn at such an important time. Having led different teams and offerings over the years I am familiar with the scale of the ambition that abrdn has,” Branner said in the press release. “The opportunity to help build a business that meets the needs of modern investors, aims for world-class performance, and cuts out complexity, is a hugely exciting prospect.”

Prior to APG, Branner had served as CEO and CIO of Swedish SEB Investment Management in Stockholm, where he was responsible for the overall investment process at the firm and its broad range of funds and institutional mandates. He also served as CIO at Fortis Investments’ multi-management division in London and managing director of Ikano Fund Management in Luxembourg.

“Peter’s experience will be fundamental in driving performance, further modernizing our investment approaches, and implementing future-fit investment technologies,” Buehlmann said in the press release. “Having led investment teams at asset managers and asset owners, Peter is ideally suited to work with our asset class heads and the broader leadership team to develop client-led investment propositions.”

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Tags: abrdn, APG, Chris Demetriou, Fortis Investments, Peter Branner, Rene Buehlmann, SEB Investment Management

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System announced the promotions of both Geraldine Jimenez and Mike DiRe to senior investment director roles this week. Jimenez will be the senior investment director of public markets, and DiRe will be the senior investment director of private markets; both will report to Deputy CIO Scott Chan.

“Geraldine and Mike each have decades of institutional investing expertise and excellent track records of leadership at CalSTRS,” Chan said in the announcement. “That’s a very valuable combination that will benefit our investments team as we continue to strengthen our organization to equip us for the future. I’m delighted to work with them in these new senior leadership roles and know how committed they both are to bolstering our mission of securing the retirement of California’s public educators.”

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The two new senior investment directors bring more than 65 years of combined investment experience to their new roles. The duo both hold bachelor’s degrees in business administration from California State University, Sacramento, as well as multi-year employment stints with CalPERS.

“I’m honored to work with our talented public markets directors and their dedicated teams,” Jimenez said in the release. “At CalSTRS, we’re always looking for new ways to create the investment returns needed to pay teachers’ pension benefits by working with our skilled in-house public trading teams and leading external partners. I look forward to continuing this focus.”

“It has been wonderful leading our real estate team, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to join forces with private equity and inflation sensitive,” DiRe said in the release. “During these challenging economic times, we’ll continue to seek advantageous alternative investments to expand and protect the Teachers’ Retirement Fund.”