Mark Anson Leaves Hermes

Mark Anson, chief executive of Hermes, the fund manager owned by the 38 bln stg BT Pension Scheme, has decided to quit the firm for 'family reasons' and will join the Chicago-based fund manager Nuveen Investments as its president.

Anson is understood to have decided to quit the firm after the sudden death of his father and to care for his ailing father-in-law.

Richard Bernays, chairman at Hermes, said: 'Mark has decided that family comes first and that he must go back to the States. We will miss him, but we understand that.'

Anson will not receive a pay-off.

Rupert Clarke, chief executive of Hermes Real Estate, has been appointed as interim chief executive after Anson leaves at the end of August. Bernays said that no headhunters had been appointed yet to look for external candidates, although he said that the BT Board would 'certainly want to look at the external market'.

Anson, joined Hermes in Jan 2006, from CalPERS, the Californian state pension scheme, where he was chief investment officer. Following his appointment, Hermes saw a string of senior departures – CIO Nick Mustoe quit to become head of equities at Swiss asset manager Pictet, while deputy chief executive and head of business development Charlie Metcalfe took charge as head of First State Global in Europe and North America.

James Walsh, who quit as head of strategy at Hermes, joined as CIO of Cornell University's endowment plan.

Anson replaced Mustoe with Roger Gray from UBS, while Mike Webb, former CEO at Invesco replaced Metcalfe.

Bernays said: 'We are calling up our pension fund clients and we hope they understand the situation. We have an excellent team in place and they have the investment skills needed to take the business forward.'

Nuveen Investments, is a Chicago-based fund management company, with around 150 bln usd in mostly retail business. Anson replaces John P. Amboian as president.