The new chair of the Danish architects’ pension fund has vowed to work harder for climate and biodiversity in the political sphere and within the pension fund’s partnership with Sampension – especially now that switching to another provider seems less likely.
Pensionskassen Arkitekter & Designere (PAD) announced on Wednesday that its board had constituted architect Rikke Rohr as the new chair, taking over from Mads Gudmand-Høyer, after she was elected by the fund’s members, with Kenneth Winther – appointed by the Academic Association of Architects – continuing as deputy chair.
Rohr said: “The overall ambitions for PAD are largely the same as they were for the previous chairship, but as the new chair, I also have a desire to reach out across the pension industry.
“The insight I’ve gained in the first few years on the board has shown me that creating this transverse network and an active dialogue with our legislators will be crucial for pension funds to truly succeed in taking responsibility for handling the climate and biodiversity crisis,” she said.
PAD said in the announcement that its board took note of the market check that consultancy KPMG had been carrying out on its behalf — the comparison of offers from other pension fund managers as well as PAD’s current provider Sampension, which the 2023 annual general meeting voted for.
“The study concludes that, based on the given criteria, there is no burning reason to leave the current administration community of Sampension,” the pension fund said.
“Now the board will concentrate its efforts on advancing the agendas of responsible investments combined with good returns and member communication, areas where there has started to be much more active cooperation in the administration community recently,” it said.
Rohr said PAD and the Sampension community had come a long way in reducing the climate footprint of investments, but that the work towards net-zero emissions was far from complete.
“I would like to create renewed momentum in the work of achieving the results which, it is broadly agreed, the board wants to see over the next few years,” she said.
At PAD’s recent annual general meeting, Winther said that in the market comparison exercise, the pension fund had opted only to consider comparable member-owned pension funds for potential cooperation, rather than large commercial providers such as Danica, and that of the funds approached, only two had wanted to meet PAD – P+ and Akademikerpension.
He reported that P+ had wanted a merger or nothing, which conflicted with the PAD board’s desire to work independently, while AkademikerPension had been open to a cooperation model, but with the proviso that there would be no separate views from the pension fund, for example on social responsibility.
However, changing provider at all would be “a very costly affair”, Winther told the meeting on 29 April.
Read the digital edition of IPE’s latest magazine
No comments yet