Saudi fund fills key positions as it looks to boost investments

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), the kingdom’s main sovereign wealth fund, said it has appointed several new candidates amid plans to boost its investments portfolio, a Reuters report said.

The PIF did not name the people it had appointed, but LinkedIn profiles showed at least five financial professionals had begun working at the Fund in the last several weeks.

These included Kevin O'Donnell as the new head of global private equity, and Mark-Oliver Fischer and Jacobo Solis as “investment professionals”.

Martin Botha was named as a director of risk to oversee the set-up of a risk management function while Richard Collins was hired to build a compliance function at the fund.

PIF said the appointments would help it "build a world-class investment portfolio, domestically and internationally, positioning it amongst the leading sovereign wealth funds globally."

In June, the PIF purchased a $3.5 billion stake in U.S. transport firm Uber. Last month, it said it might invest up to $45 billion over the next five years in a technology investment fund that it would establish with Japan's SoftBank Group, according to earlier news reports.