SWEDEN – The 142 billion-crown (15.6 billion-euro) Tredje AP-fonden has named Kerstin Hessius, president of the Stockholm stock exchange, to replace Tomas Nicolin as chief executive.

Hessius is currently president of Stockholmsbörsen and a member of the Commission on Business Confidence. She has held several senior financial market positions.

Nicolin left AP3 to join occupational pensions firm Alecta in April, with chief operating officer Sven Askenberger becoming acting CEO. Deputy CEO and chief investment officer Niklas Ekvall also announced his departure in April.

“Kerstin Hessius is ideally suited for this position,” said AP3 chairman Claes de Neegaard. “She has a unique breadth of experience from a series of leading posts in Sweden’s capital markets, both in the private and public sectors.”

“She stands for dedicated and proactive leadership and her experience from the Commission on Business Confidence makes her especially well suited to assuming responsibility for the AP3’s increasingly important role as institutional shareholder.”

Hessius said: “Managing the pension capital of the Swedish people is an important and weighty task. It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that I will take on the role of chief executive officer of AP3.”

“It is particularly stimulating to move to an asset management organisation that has developed a reputation for professionalism and dynamism.”

Hessius has been head of the Stockholm bourse since August 2001, and is also executive vice president of the HEX Integrated Markets Division of exchange and technology group OMHEX.

"I would like to thank Kerstin for the valuable contributions she made during her years at Stockholmsbörsen and congratulate her on her new position,” said HEX Integrated Markets’ president Jukka Ruuska.

“In particular, I would like to highlight Kerstin’s work to strengthen market confidence and to advance Nordic integration during her three years at Stockholmsbörsen.”

"I will bring with me all the valuable experience gained from working with the development of an effective and trustworthy Nordic marketplace in collaboration with interesting and competent customers and fellow employees," Hessius was quoted as saying in a HEX release.

She was previously deputy governor of the Riksbank, chief executive of Östgöta Enskilda Asset Management and head of fixed income sales & trading at Alfred Berg.

She will join AP3 on September 1.

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