NETHERLANDS - Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, the €201bn Dutch civil service pension fund, has named chief financial officer Dick Sluimers as its new executive board chairman.

Sluimers, 53, takes over from John Neervens, who died unexpectedly early November.

Sluimers has been chief financial officer since 2003, and has been deputy executive chair for a year, during Neervens' illness.

Before he joined ABP he was director general of the national budget at the Dutch Treasury.

He's also chairman of the Foundation for Pension Science, a trustee of the National Academy for Finance and Economics and a member of the supervisory board of Atradius NV, a credit insurance company.

"We are pleased that we can keep continuity in the leadership of our scheme with the appointment of Sluimers. He has a lot of expertise within the pensions world, and he knows ABP to the core," ABP's chairman Elco Brinkman commented.

During his 12 years in the role, Neervens led ABP's privatisation, and oversaw the scheme's transformation into a modern, well-organized company, the fund said.

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