Gustav Karner, CIO at Sweden’s Nobel Foundation, is changing job, having been appointed chief executive of the pension foundation belonging to Swedish state-owned pharmaceuticals retailer Apoteket.

Apoteket, which reports to the Ministry of Finance, had a monopoly on the sale of drugs to the public until 2009.

Karner said: “It will be very exciting and fun to develop the successful investment management of Apoteket’s pension foundation (Apoteket AB:s Pensionstiftelse).

“I envisage modern asset management with a robust portfolio, which will be able to deal with the volatile markets of the future.”

Karner said his goal was that the pension foundation be able to work with the sharpest asset managers without sacrificing cost effectiveness.

Apoteket AB:s Pensionstiftelse manages around SEK10bn (€1bn) in assets.

Karner has been CIO of the Nobel Foundation – the private institution that manages the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes – since 2012.

Before that, he was CIO of the asset management division at Sweden’s Länsförsäkringar.

Earlier on in his career, he worked at Alecta – back when it was called SPP – and at Handelsbanken Markets before that.

Viveka Ekberg, chairman of the Apoteket pension foundation’s supervisory board, said the board was very pleased they were able to appoint Karner.

“His broad background in quantitative analysis and risk management and his long experience in managing institutional portfolios will be very useful for Apoteket’s pension foundation,” she said.

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