Mercer Closes Regional Offices, Loses Star to Asset Manager

Mercer is to close two offices in the south-east of the UK and move staff to a new building in Woking, Surrey, Chief Investment Officer has learned.

The move comes as Richard Cooper, a senior partner, is leaving after 20 years at Mercer to join Momentum Global Investment Management.

The South African asset manager has a growing retail and institutional presence in the UK and was shortlisted for CIO’s European Innovation Awards in the multi-asset category in May.

Cooper will join Momentum at the end of August as head of corporate solutions and consulting. The asset manager’s head of institutional business Nick Robert-Nicoud said investment consulting was an “integral part” of Momentum’s business in South Africa and would be an area of growth for the UK.

A spokesperson for Mercer confirmed Cooper’s departure and said: “With our office leases in Leatherhead and Windsor coming to a close, we have decided to relocate both operations and all business lines to one new office in Woking. The consolidation will take place in Q3 2014 and allows us to continue to service clients across the south of England.”

Elsewhere, Cambridge Associates has hired Alex Koriath from KPMG to run its UK pension consultancy business, based in London.

At KPMG, Koriath was head of manager research and fiduciary management advisory services.Before joining KPMG, Koriath was an investment consultant at Aon Hewitt, and has also worked at Allianz.

He also spoke to CIO last year regarding the development of fiduciary management in Europe.