Aon 

Aon has announced that Francois Choquette has joined its Global Benefits practice as Senior Vice President and Leader of the Americas team, which covers the United States, Canada and Latin America. He brings more than 20 years' experience in international consulting to the firm. Before joining Aon, Mr Choquette worked for Mercer for 20 years, developing expertise in a broad range of international resource areas, including mergers and acquisitions, global compensation and benefit design, global governance policies, multinational pooling and employee mobility. In addition, Dany Mathieu has recently joined the firm as Vice President. He has 20 years' experience in international consulting, having previously worked as a senior Principal at Mercer. Mr Mathieu is a recognized thought leader in the field of global governance, defined contribution, workforce reduction and employee mobility. Furthermore, Christina Barcelon has joined the firm as a Consultant. Ms Barcelon recently completed her Master of Science in International Employee Relations and Human Resource Management. While studying in London, she worked part time in Cisco Systems' global benefits team. Ms Barcelon previously worked at Watson Wyatt's San Francisco-based international consulting and investment consulting group. Mr Choquette, Mr Mathieu and Ms Barcelon are all based in San Francisco.

Vanbreda International

Vanbreda International has appointed Joris Smets as the new Head of its Provider Relations department. Based in Antwerp, Mr Smets will be responsible for managing, extending and improving the company's network of in- and out-patient health-care providers. He will continue to raise awareness of in-network as well as out-of-network providers and will focus on optimizing its network by constantly adapting it to the needs of existing and new clients. Before assuming his new position, he was Account Manager in charge of sales and distribution of ExpatPlus, as well as Vanbreda International's customized employee benefits insurance service for a designated client portfolio. Before joining the company, Mr Smets worked for a non-governmental organization in West Africa.

Hewitt Associates

Hewitt Associates has appointed Steve Bright as Global Leader of Human Resources for its Consulting business. In this role, Mr Bright is responsible for developing and executing people strategies and for HR service delivery for the company's consulting operations around the world. Before joining Hewitt, he was Group HR Director and a member of the executive management team at Detica PLC, a business and technology consultancy that operates in Europe and the USA. Mr Bright is based in London.

MFS Investment Management

MFS Investment Management recently announced the appointment of Ravi Venkataraman as Senior Managing Director of Global Consultant Relations. In his new role, Mr Venkataraman's main focus will be to expand consultant relationships globally, determine how best to position key institutional products and provide for stronger global co-ordination of consultant coverage.

Insurope

Serge Martin has recently joined Insurope as Network Actuary. Mr Martin previously worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers where he managed a team within the Insurance and Benefit Actuarial Services. He was also involved in benefit-related issues, advising corporate clients and insurance companies on Solvency II, IFRS, US GAAP and embedded value projects, in addition to advising several major insurers operating in Belgium. Mr Martin will be based in Brussels.

Towers Perrin

Towers Perrin has appointed Jason Smith as a senior consultant for pension risk management. Based in London, Mr Smith is responsible for building and expanding the firm's Liability-Driven Investment (LDI) structuring and implementation services for defined benefit pension plan sponsors. He will also contribute to similar development efforts in the United States. Before joining the firm, Mr Smith was director, fund manager and investment officer, global fixed income, for BlackRock. Among his duties were managing derivative overlay funds and implementing LDI strategies.