Willis Towers Watson has promoted Sara Rejal and Karen Dolenec as head of liquid alternatives and head of real assets, respectively, within its diversifying strategies function.
Both Rejal and Dolenec joined Willis Towers Watson in 2014 as senior investment consultants.
In her new role, Dolenec continues to be responsible for real estate, infrastructure and natural resources, whilst Rejal will oversee hedge funds, alternative beta, reinsurance and multi-asset strategies.
Luba Nikulina (pictured), global head of manager research at Willis Towers Watson, says: “I am delighted to announce the promotions of Sara and Karen to, respectively, head of liquid alternatives and head of real assets. We are fortunate to have such high-calibre industry talent available to us within Willis Towers Watson. The new leadership structure of our diversifying strategies function will enable us to better align research and portfolio construction, with an even more positive influence on improving client outcomes. We aim to achieve this through the continued development of differentiated solutions, spanning a variety of return drivers and bringing more diversity into client portfolios in the environment of low asset returns and general macroeconomic uncertainty.”
Rejal joined Willis Towers Watson in 2014 as a senior investment consultant. Prior to this, she was at HSBC for seven years in the London, New York and Geneva offices of the alternative investment group. In her new role, Rejal will focus on further integration of the research team to ensure more fluidity across the spectrum of liquid alternatives, starting from low-cost smart beta solutions all the way up to active hedge fund strategies.
Dolenec also joined Willis Towers Watson in 2014 as a senior investment consultant. Prior to joining, she was a founding member and managing director at Terra Firma Capital Partners, a European buyout firm. While there, she executed deals across a number of industries and geographies, including some of the firm's most successful investments. In her new role, Dolenec will continue to lead the global real assets research team.
