Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Swedish pension fund Alecta has announced the appointment of Pablo Bernengo as its incoming chief investment officer. Currently holding a similar role at Sweden’s Tredje AP-fonden (AP3) since 2019, Bernengo is poised to assume his new position by January of the coming year. He will succeed Henrik Gade Jepsen, who stepped down from the CIO role after an extended sick leave caused by complications from a Covid infection, following his appointment in December of last year.
“I am very happy to welcome Pablo as the new head of Alecta’s Asset Management,” announces Katarina Thorslund, acting CEO of Alecta. “His extensive experience in asset management and as a leader in various organizations will be very valuable to us, not least in our ongoing work within the framework of the strategic review of the asset management model.”
“I am very happy to welcome Pablo as the new head of Alecta’s Asset Management.”
Pablo Bernengo has been serving as the CIO of AP3 since October 2019, previously working as CIO and later CEO of Öhman Fonder for about eight and a half years. He also held the role of portfolio manager at DNB Asset Management for over a decade. Upon joining AP3 in 2019, Bernengo was tasked to review and implement changes in the organization’s investment team and portfolio. “It was clear that the institution was ripe for change in several areas, in terms of organizational structure, the portfolio and the sustainability strategy,” Bernengo remarked in an interview with IPE earlier this summer.
Bernengo is set to embark on a similar mission in his new role at Alecta, which faced a turbulent first half of 2023 due to its investments in three of the worst-affected banks during the US banking crisis in March and April. Alecta suffered a loss of approximately SEK 20 billion from these investments. Despite significant losses on individual investments, Alecta’s defined premium savings product, Alecta Optimal Pension, managed to return 6.6 percent during the first half of 2023.
“Alecta is an important player in the Swedish pension system and the capital market. I look forward to meeting all employees and, together with them, continue to develop asset management,” Pablo Bernengo comments on joining Alecta. Bernengo is set to assume the new role no later than January 7, 2024.
