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Luba Nikulina appointed global head of manager research at Towers Watson

Monday, September 08, 2014
Opalesque Industry Update - Towers Watson has promoted Luba Nikulina to global head of manager research, effective immediately, following Craig Baker’s recent appointment to the role of global Chief Investment Officer. Luba has worked for Towers Watson for nine years and held various manager research positions in the United Kingdom and the United States, most recently as global head of private markets research, based in London.

Craig Baker, global Chief Investment Officer at Towers Watson, said: “We are fortunate to have someone of Luba’s significant experience – gained both with Towers Watson and previously as a private equity investor - ready to take on this important global role. While this is excellent for continuity, it is also an opportunity to further evolve our research structure so that we continue to provide a sustainable competitive advantage for our clients. We have long been ‘asset class’ agnostic and operated in line with broadly defined investment return drivers when developing investment strategy and portfolio construction for our clients, so we are taking the opportunity to re-structure the manager research team under Luba’s leadership.

“The new structure will enhance our ability to compare mandates of a similar nature such as long only equity and long short equity, or indeed public and private equity. It will also create better alignment between our research efforts and portfolio construction process. We can offer clients a variety of differentiated solutions which span a variety of return drivers and the implementation spectrum from bulk beta through smart beta to alpha - whether in liquid or illiquid space. Luba will work closely with David Hoile as head of the asset research team, Tim Hodgson as head of the thinking ahead group and me to ensure that we continue to have one consolidated global research effort that brings our best ideas to all of our clients around the world, whether advisory or delegated.”

Under the new manager research structure, Towers Watson will have three global research streams. Jim MacLachlan will continue to lead the equity research stream which will now include long short equity hedge funds and private equity funds in addition to traditional long only equity, bulk and smart beta equity mandates. Similarly, Chris Redmond continues to lead the credit research stream which will now include long short fixed income hedge funds and illiquid credit in addition to traditional long only credit products and bulk and smart beta credit mandates.

Damien Loveday, previously head of the hedge fund stream, will take leadership of the newly created “Diversifying Strategies” stream which includes a variety of other investment return drivers represented by such strategies as macro hedge funds, reinsurance, systematic hedge fund strategies, multi-strategy/multi-asset funds, real estate, infrastructure, agriculture, timber and any new diversifying strategies that are identified through time. Specialist hedge fund or private market mandates are still put together by the same teams as previously.

Towers Watson has one of the industry’s largest teams dedicated to manager research and is made up of over 130 full-time and part-time associates who provide a range of fund analysis, manager research, selection and monitoring services globally for sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, insurance companies and private wealth managers.

* Return drivers represent investments that generate specific market risks and returns for a portfolio such as equity risk premium, credit, illiquidity, insurance, term, inflation, currency, skill.

Towers Watson Investment
Towers Watson’s Investment business is focused on creating financial value for institutional investors through its expertise in risk assessment, strategic asset allocation, fiduciary management and investment manager selection. It has over 800 associates worldwide, assets under advisory of over US$2 trillion and over US$65 billion of assets under management.

About Towers Watson
Towers Watson is a leading global professional services company that helps organizations improve performance through effective people, risk and financial management. The company offers consulting, technology and solutions in the areas of benefits, talent management, rewards, and risk and capital management. Towers Watson has more than 14,000 associates around the world and is located on the web at www.towerswatson.com.

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