LONDON, 06 February 2012 – Aon Hewitt, the global human resource consulting and outsourcing business of Aon Corporation (NYSE:AON), has announced that it is extending its investment consulting services to the insurance market and building on its existing offering to the corporate sector. 

With insurance companies facing fresh challenges in the way they manage their assets and liabilities, the new Aon Hewitt services will offer both advisory guidance and delegated investment services across a range of issues, including help on strategy and manager selection. Similarly, for multi-nationals and UK corporates, the Aon Hewitt team will offer broad strategic advice on existing pension plans as well as other asset pools, with advisory services available on a range of issues from guidance on governance matters through to global flightplans.

A new team focusing on these areas across Europe has been created under the leadership of Zuhair Mohammed, who first launched and then led Aon Hewitt's Delegated Consulting Services during the last five years.

John Rushen UK head of Investment Consulting at Aon Hewitt, said:
"This is a new and exciting venture for investment consulting at Aon Hewitt and we have asked Zuhair Mohammed to take the lead.  Zuhair has made a considerable success of building our Delegated Consulting Services to its current position and we are very pleased that he is bringing his skills to this new challenge.  This is an area of great potential."

New leaders for Delegated Consulting Service

With Zuhair Mohammed’s appointment to lead this new team, Aon Hewitt's UK Delegated Consulting Services will now be co-led by Ian Bailey and Paul Docherty (see Notes to Editors for biographies).

John Rushen said:
"I am very pleased to announce that Ian Bailey and Paul Docherty are stepping into the leadership of our Delegated Consulting Services - they represent a great combination to guide the Delegated team forward.  They are aligned in a common aim, have highly complementary skill sets and experience and have an excellent working relationship.

"This is an exciting period for Aon Hewitt's Delegated Consulting Services – we now work with 98 pension schemes globally with $23 billion of assets under management.  Everyone is aware of the issues that schemes face and the way they have been exacerbated by the economic woes of the last few years, but our market experience is that fiduciary or delegated solutions are increasingly becoming established as the way to widen a scheme's options and its ability to respond effectively to both threats and opportunities."

Media Contact: 

Colin Mayes                                    Quintin Keanie
Aon Hewitt                                       Capital MSL
01372 733689                                020 7255 5154
colin.mayes@aonhewitt.com      quintin.keanie@capitalmsl.com

Notes to editors

Ian Bailey

Ian joined the Investment Practice at Hewitt Associates (now Aon Hewitt) in 2008 as a principal. Ian is an associate of the CFA Society of the UK (ASIP) and a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Securities Institute. At Aon Hewitt, he is co-CEO of our UK delegated consulting businesses and also advises a small number of UK pension schemes within the public and private sector on their investments. His clients adopt strategies, whether on a delegated basis or an advisory basis, tailored closely to their individual needs and he therefore has experience in a full range of potential asset classes and risk management approaches.

Ian was previously a managing director at BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Limited and its predecessor companies. Ian has over 35 years of broad industry experience including 15 years as a fund manager and 10 years as a trustee of the Merrill Lynch UK Pension Plan. At BlackRock, Ian was a member of the BlackRock UK Institutional Asset Allocation Committee and also a director of BlackRock Pensions Limited, a UK life company.

Paul Docherty

Paul joined Aon Consulting (now Aon Hewitt) in 1999 and is a principal and actuary within the Investment practice.  At Aon Hewitt, he is co-CEO of our UK delegated consulting businesses.  Paul has a breadth of experience spanning the understanding of liabilities, strategic investment policy, investment management and execution.  He has held several executive roles including head of investment consulting. 

Paul also advises a small number of UK and Irish pension schemes, and has advised clients with £5m to several billion in assets under management.  He is a specialist in delegated consulting, including the implementation of flightpaths and construction of the associated daily monitoring and execution processes.  

Zuhair Mohammed

Zuhair Mohammed joined Hewitt Associates (now Aon Hewitt) in 2007 and built the Delegated Consulting Services business. Zuhair has a broad range of expertise across the investment industry, having held a number of senior management positions. This experience spans over two decades and a wide variety of institutional investors by asset size, structure and geographic location. He is also an actuary.
Zuhair has structured a number of businesses to deliver better value for the end user and regularly speaks on the subject of tackling agency risks across the entire investment industry. He is a member of The 300 Club,