People moves: Alecta to propose new chair at AGM

Alecta – Magnus Hall, former chief executive officer of Swedish state-owned power company Vattenfall, is being officially proposed as the new chair of Alecta at the Swedish pension fund’s annual general meeting (AGM) on 8 May.

Alecta said back in February that Hall had been approved by the Swedish FSA as a suitable candidate to head  the SEK1.3trn (€119bn) institution’s board. If approved at the AGM, Hall’s appointment would end an 18-month hiatus when Alecta has been without a permanent chair, after Ingrid Bonde quit amid a scandal over bad investments.

The nomination committee is also proposing the re-election of eight board members, as well as the new election of Hillevi Agranius, chief information officer at Swedish security services company Securitas, and Jesper Andersson, CEO at Swedish real estate insurance firm Brandkontoret.

Jan-Olof Jacke, CEO of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, who has been acting chair of Alecta since late 2023, has declined re-election to the board, Alecta said, with Martin Fridolf, CEO of Swedish employers’ association Ledarna, also declining to stand for re-election.

Lægernes Pension – Lars Tranberg Rasmussen has been promoted at the Danish pension fund for doctors from his role as head of strategy to head of listed assets with personnel responsibility. The new appointment took effect on 1 April. While his role so far has involved being in charge of listed assets, his new role also includes responsibility for a team of 13 employees. 

The DKK126bn (€16.9bn) pension fund has been working to change its listed equities management from active management to an index basis over the past five years – a process that it has been completing since last autumn.

Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute (AFII) – The research firm has appointed Rose Choy as APAC research director and Masahiro Matsukawa as senior adviser, Japan, to further AFII’s delivery of research, portfolio analysis and advocacy in the Asia-Pacific region.

Based in Singapore, Choy focuses on credit research and analysis on the energy transition. She has more than 20 years of experience in the capital markets. She was most recently a senior portfolio manager at Conning Asia in Hong Kong for fixed-income and multi-asset portfolios.

Based in Tokyo, Matsukawa is focused on developing and strengthening AFII’s profile and network among market stakeholders in Japan, with a particular focus on the government’s Green Transformation (GX) policies. He has spent more than 35 years working for global investment banks in Tokyo and London, including Daiwa Securities, RBC, Societe Generale, and HSBC.

Phenix Capital Group – Rikkert Beerekamp is joining Phenix as chief investment officer. With more than 25 years of experience in private equity and impact investing, he will lead the group’s investment processes and drive the development of its asset management solutions.

Increasingly, institutional investors are engaging Phenix Capital in the execution of their impact investment strategies, either as an investment and impact adviser or to structure and manage tailored products, the firm said. To better support its clients, it is strengthening its investment capabilities in both institutional fund selection and direct investments.

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – The UK regulator is establishing a presence in the US and Asia-Pacific for the first time.

In the US, Tash Miah started in April at the British Embassy in Washington, DC. She will work closely with the business and trade department to advance UK-US financial services policy and regulatory cooperation, and support financial firms in the US to navigate UK regulation. Miah has been with the FCA since 2022. She started her career at Morgan Stanley investment bank in London.

Based in Australia, Camille Blackburn will establish a regional office from July this year as the FCA’s director – Asia-Pacific, a role that will focus on supporting financial services firms to navigate regulation to enter the UK market or raise capital and provide UK firms with support expanding into the APAC region. Blackburn has been the director of wholesale buy-side at the FCA since 2022. She has worked as the global chief compliance officer for several large financial firms in the UK and in APAC and has held senior regulatory roles at the Central Bank of Ireland, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Australian Treasury.

The latest digital edition of IPE’s magazine is now available