UK Health Foundation Appoints CIO

A former asset manager has taken the top investment role at one of the UK’s largest health charities.

The Health Foundation—a UK-based £900 million ($1.4 billion) charity—has appointed Aidan Kearney as its chief investment officer.

He replaces Andrew Chapman, former pension investment manager at the John Lewis Partnership, who had been the foundation’s CIO since June 2012.

Kearney is a former fund-of-funds manager at groups including Aberdeen Asset Management, Credit Suisse, Artemis, and Premier Asset Management. He left Aberdeen last year following its purchase of Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and the merger of two funds-of-funds ranges.

At The Health Foundation, Kearney will oversee a portfolio and strategy designed to enable the foundation to spend roughly £30 million a year on activities and health care improvement programs.

He joined the group on September 1, a spokesperson for The Health Foundation said.

According to its most recent annual report, from December 2013, in that year The Health Foundation posted a 12.5% return, comfortably beating its benchmark. Mercer was the investment consultant advising the foundation’s investment committee in 2013, but was replaced by Cambridge Associates in January 2014.

Related: Advocate’s Leslie Lenzo: How to Take a Health Care Portfolio Active

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