Towers Watson Announces Investment Biz Staff Changes

Hall is charged with overseeing investment advice and implementation to pension plan sponsors and institutional investors in the western United States. Hall’s appointment is effective March 1.  

In addition, the company has appointed several current associates to new and expanded roles, effective immediately: Matthew Stroud to the newly created position of Head of Strategy and Portfolio Construction, North America; Weston Tompkins, East Division Investment Leader; Marko Komarynsky, Head of Manager Research, U.S.; Diya Luke, New York Office Investment Leader, and Hillary Bolton, Atlanta Office Investment Leader.   

According to a press release, Hall joins Towers Watson after 13 years at Russell Investments Americas, where he was most recently Director of Investment Strategy. Prior to joining Russell, Hall held consulting positions with Northern Trust Retirement Consulting and Buck Consultants.   

In his new role, Stroud, who has 19 years of capital markets and investment advisory experience, will help clients develop strategies and portfolios based on their objectives, consistent with the company’s views on capital markets and investment opportunities. Stroud, Towers Watson’s New York office Investment Leader for the past five years, is a member of the company’s Global Investment Committee.   

Tompkins, who was Southeast Investment Leader since joining Towers Watson in 2006, will assume the East responsibilities held by Christopher DeMeo, who is now head of investment for North America. Prior to joining Towers Watson, Tompkins spent 10 years at Hewitt Investment Group; seven years of which were spent as Chair of the company’s U.S. manager research group. Before that, he held analytical positions at New England Pension Consultants and the Principal/EGT. .   

Most recently, Komarynsky, who has more than two decades of experience, was Towers Watson’s director of U.S. fixed-income manager research. He joined the company in 2005 as a fixed income specialist, after holding fixed income analyst and portfolio manager positions at EVEREN Securities, Bank of America and Harris Trust and Savings Bank. Komarynsky was also a manager of research at Morgan Stanley Graystone Research.