Torsten Fels, director and the other half of the two-person management team at PenSam Group, is to succeed Helen Kobæk as chief executive.

Kobæk, the longstanding chief executive of the Danish labour-market pension provider, is to retire in July after almost 31 years leading the business.

Benny Buchardt Anderson, PenSam’s investment director, is to succeed Fels as director.

Dennis Kristensen, chairman of both PenSam Holding and FOA, the trade union behind PenSam, said: “I am confident we have now found the perfect match to accelerate pension savings.”

Fels has been director at PenSam since 2012, while Buchardt Andersen began as investment director at PenSam in 2007, joining from Sampension.

Kobæk has decided to resign from her various posts at the PenSam group at the end of July.

She has led PenSam since its inception in 1985.

“She was one of the very first in the industry to coordinate pension savings with ill-health prevention for professional groups particularly vulnerable to physical and mental deterioration in their working lives,” PenSam said.

Kobæk won the gold award for Pension Fund Achievement of the Year in 2015 at the IPE Awards for this work.

Kristensen said: “I want to thank Helen Kobæk for a great effort since PenSam’s infancy.

“[She] has always managed to think outside the box and has led the way with innovative pension concepts and services to prevent illness in people who work hard for the good of Danish people every day of their long working lives.”

PenSam’s membership includes FOA members who work in labour-market sectors such as social and healthcare, cleaning, kindergartens and nurseries.

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