Former AP3 CIO appointed CEO at Switzerland's Blue Diamond

EUROPE – Erik Valtonen, the former CIO at Swedish buffer fund AP3, has joined the asset management firm Blue Diamond as its chief executive.

Valtonen, who joined the €26bn Tredje AP-fonden (AP3) in Sweden in 2000, has been a member of Blue Diamond's advisory board since September 2011.

Based in Switzerland, Blue Diamond Asset Management is a privately held investment boutique founded in 2009.

Valtonen said he was "thrilled" to be joining such a "dynamic, creative" investment business.

"I look forward to using my knowledge as an institutional investor to broaden Blue Diamond's investment proposition and steer the firm as it enters its next phase of growth," he said.

Valtonen spent more than 10 years at AP3, latterly as a CIO, before he left the fund on 30 September 2010 to establish his own consultancy business, called Erik Valtonen Consulting.

He retained an advisory role at AP3 between October 2010 and May 2011, being a senior advisor to the chief executive.

Prior to joining AP3, he worked at Svenska Handelsbanken in fixed income and fixed income derivatives in Helsinki, London and Stockholm.

Valtonen has also been a member of the investment consultative committee of the state pension fund in Finland since January 2010, as well as a non-executive director at SEB Investment Management since February this year.