Rob Groves has become chief investment officer of Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), a London-based specialist insurer of defined benefit pension funds.
He joins PIC from Friends Life, where he was CIO, overseeing assets totalling over £100bn ($150bn). Last month rival firm Aviva completed the acquisition of Friends Life.
Groves previously worked for UBS, Commerzbank and Towers.
He will have responsibility for the management of PIC's portfolio, including asset and liability management, manager selection and interest-rate and inflation-hedging strategies.
PIC has £14bn of assets under management, primarily invested in investment-grade corporate bonds, UK government debt and cash.
PIC's previous CIO, Tracy Blackwell, was made deputy CEO in January and will succeed John Coomber as CEO of PIC when he retires on 30June (IAR, 29 January, Blackwell to lead Pension Insurance Corporation)
Blackwell said Groves "brings a wealth of experience to the CIO role which will benefit the company as we manage an expanding portfolio."
Friends Life recruited Groves in 2011 from UBS, where he worked on institutional derivative solutions and innovative asset ideas, and he initially spearheaded Friends' asset-liability management (IAR, 13 April 2015, Friends Life CIO values his investment banking skills).