Swedish pensions buffer fund AP3 has announced the name of its new chief executive officer this morning, saying Staffan Hansén will take over from its longstanding CEO Kerstin Hessius by December.

Christina Lindenius, chair of the SEK502bn (€47.3bn) fund, said: “I am delighted we have recruited Staffan Hansén as AP3’s new CEO.

“I believe his extensive experience of asset management and his strong track record as a CEO and leader, combined with all the very competent people at AP3, will provide the optimal basis for continued successful operations of the fund and hence of the state pension system,” she said.

Hansén is currently CEO of SPP Pension & Försäkring, a Swedish occupational pension provider owned by Norwegian financial group Storebrand. Hansén is also an executive management member of Storebrand.

On 1 March this year, Hessius declared her intention to step down as CEO of AP3 – which is one of five buffer funds behind Sweden’s first-pillar income pension – after 18 years in the top role.

Hessius said she had come to the conclusion it was time to hand over the reins.

AP3 said Hansén, who has been CEO of SPP Pension & Försäkring for seven years, had many years of experience of leading asset management organisations behind him, having previously been CEO of Storebrand Asset Management and held responsibility for Storebrand’s life insurance portfolios.

Before that, he was in charge of fixed income trading at Handelsbanken and Alfred Berg, the Stockholm-based fund said.

Hansén will leave his job at SPP in the autumn and take up his new job at AP3 by 1 December at the latest, according to AP3 and SPP.

AP3 used the firm Novare Executive Search to recruit a new CEO.

In the job description it published, AP3 said that, inter alia, it was looking for someone with “a societal interest that goes beyond just economic issues.”

As national pension funds now managing SEK2trn, the AP buffer funds and how they operate are frequent objects of political and public debate in Sweden.

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Rachel is IPE's Nordic correspondent. She has long been a freelance writer, and over the years, has written for The Telegraph, The Independent, The Observer, AMWatch and elsewhere. In 2001, Rachel's personal finance book Kickstart Your Money was published by John Wiley & Sons.View full Profile

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