Toronto-based Sun Life Financial Inc. announced on Monday that Randolph (Randy) Brown has been appointed as the firm’s chief investment officer (CIO) while his predecessor concentrates on overseeing the firm’s growing investment-management unit.

Brown, who joins Sun Life from the investment arm of Deutsche Bank AG, will assume the CIO responsibilities from Steve Peacher, president, Sun Life Investment Management. Peacher previously held dual accountabilities and will now focus on his role as president of the institutional investment-management business that the company launched two years ago.

Brown will oversee the investment operations of Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada and its general account, which had invested assets of approximately $135 billion as of Sept. 30, 2015.

“I am very pleased to welcome Randy to Sun Life and to the Sun Life Investment Management team,” says Peacher in a statement. “He brings considerable global institutional investment expertise that will benefit our investment process. In his role, Randy will provide overall strategic direction for the investment of our general account assets and stewardship for our investment team. I expect that Randy’s insights will also be invaluable as we expand our efforts in third-party asset management.”

Brown has three decades of investment-management experience at global financial services institutions. Since 2007, he held several senior roles with Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management, most recently as global head of insurance and pension solutions and as head of asset and wealth management for the U.K. region.

Brown’s previous experience also includes serving as co-head of portfolio management in the financial institutions group with New York-based BlackRock, Inc., at which he managed $120 billion in fixed-income assets.

Sun Life Investment Management has grown significantly since its launch in April 2014, with last year’s acquisitions of Ryan Labs Asset Management Inc., Prime Advisors Inc. and Bentall Kennedy Group having expanded the scale of the business considerably. The unit provides investment solutions for defined-benefit pension plans and other institutional investors, specializing in private asset class funds and liability driven investment strategies.

Brown holds a bachelor of science and a master of engineering, both in electrical engineering, from Cornell University. He also earned a master of business administration from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.

All figures in Canadian dollars.