Tim Mitchell and Ed Wilson joined Towers Watson as senior investment consultants, a spokeswoman said.
The positions are new, and they are based in London.
Towers Watson is seeing growing demand from institutional investors for expertise in optimizing their business, such as advice on organizational structure, and the new appointments are indicative of this demand, the spokeswoman said.
“As investment organizations — such as sovereign funds, family offices and foundations — aim to optimize their businesses to make the most of the competitive and low-return environment, they are increasingly seeking our advice about organizational structure and change management, as well as calling on the full range of our investment services,” said Ed Francis, Europe, the Middle East and Africa head of investment at Towers Watson, in a news release from Towers Watson. He added that demand is growing across EMEA, but is most notably increasing in the Middle East.
Mr. Mitchell was previously a senior adviser for strategic projects and general manager of corporate strategy at the NZ$30 billion ($19.6 billion) New Zealand Superannuation Fund, Auckland, the news release said. An NZ Super spokeswoman could not be reached for comment by press time.
Mr. Wilson was previously a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers, working on projects for global organizations and governments across investment consulting, reward and executive pension benefits, employee savings and HR analytics, the release said. A spokeswoman for PwC said the firm has large teams across these divisions and is recruiting all the time for the teams. PwC does not directly replace a position unless it is a leadership position, she said in an e-mail.