Kåpan Tjänstepensionsförening, the Swedish pension fund for government staff, has announced a change of leadership, with its chief investment officer being promoted to the role of chief executive officer from early next year.
Marie Giertz, who has worked at Kåpan since 2016 and is currently the pension fund’s deputy CEO as well as heading up asset management, is to take over from Gunnar Balsvik, who has been CEO for 21 years, the Sundsvall-based institutional investor said.
Dan Sjöblom, chair of the SEK170bn (€14.9bn) fund, said: “We on the board are very happy that Marie has agreed to shoulder the responsibility of CEO of Kåpan.”
He said she had long and solid experience at Kåpan, within the pensions industry and the financial sector.
“Kåpan is a very well-managed and strong business, and with Marie as the new CEO, we are making sure Kåpan gets both the necessary power to continue developing and be at the forefront of things, but also the continuity needed to continue delivering good pensions to those who work in government service,” he said.
Sjöblom said the board wanted to thank Balsvik for his “long and very successful time” as CEO.
“Gunnar has always had the best interests of the business and the members’ pensions in focus, which we on the board have really valued,” he said.
Before coming to Kåpan, Giertz was chief economist at the state-owned company Swedish Export Credit, and prior to that, was chief economist at insurance and pensions group Länsförsäkringar.
She started work at Kåpan – which has some 900,000 members and is Sweden’s 10th largest pension fund in terms of its total assets – in September 2016, and then became CIO eight months later in June 2017.
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