People Moves Roundup

Hirtle Callaghan Appoints Endowment Veteran Stephen Vaccaro as Director of Private Equity 

Hirtle Callaghan announced that Stephen Vaccaro has joined the firm as director of private equity.

Vaccaro is working closely with Hirtle Callaghan’s investment team to oversee private equity investment efforts on behalf of the firm’s family, endowment, foundation, health care, and pension clients. He reports to Dan McCollum, deputy chief investment officer, who leads the firm’s manager selection. Vaccaro also serves as a member of Hirtle Callaghan’s investment policy committee and investment strategy committee.

Vaccaro joins Hirtle Callaghan from the University of Pennsylvania’s office of investments, where he focused for eight years on growing the private equity investment program for the university’s $13 billion endowment and $2 billion pension fund. As a senior team member, Vaccaro played an active role in investment committee discussions across public equity, private equity, real assets, and absolute return strategies.

Prior to joining the University of Pennsylvania, Vaccaro was a senior team member at Princeton University’s $26 billion endowment, where he worked in private investments across buyouts, venture capital, natural resources, and real estate. Vaccaro holds a Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Yale University. He is also a CFA charter holder.
 
XPS Pensions Group Appoints James Leeming as Head of Investment in Manchester

XPS Pensions Group (XPS) announced the appointment of James Leeming as partner and head of investment at its Manchester office, driving growth of the firm’s  investment consulting services.

Leeming has over 13 years of specialist investment experience helping pension schemes manage their investment risk and deliver to their objectives. Prior to moving into investments, he qualified as an actuary with significant knowledge and expertise in pensions liability risk. Leeming joins from JLT Group, where he was a director within the employee benefits practice.

XPS Pensions Group is the largest pure pensions consultancy in the UK specializing in pensions actuarial, investment consulting, and administration services. Leeming joined XPS August 5.

Zulfiqar Ali joins PGIM Fixed Income as Senior Portfolio Manager

PGIM Fixed Income has hired Zulfiqar Ali as a senior portfolio manager focusing on Latin America hard currency sovereign and quasi-sovereign bond positions across emerging markets strategies. Ali will report to emerging markets co-heads David Bessey and Cathy Hepworth, and will be based in Newark, New Jersey.

Ali was most recently a senior portfolio manager in emerging markets fixed income for Fort Washington Investment Advisors. Prior to Fort Washington, Ali was a policy advisor in emerging markets for SGH Macro Advisors, where he conducted emerging markets sovereign policy research.

“Ali’s knowledge and experience across emerging markets, as well as familiarity with our firm and our team, make him an outstanding addition as we seek to add alpha-generating ideas from Latin American fixed income markets,” said Hepworth.

Ali received a Bachelor of Arts with honors in economics, international relations, and political science from Brown University, and an MBA from Oxford University Said Business School.