Alecta cannot carry out an “adequate recruitment process” for a new chairman of the board before its ordinary board meeting later this month, it has said.

The pension provider said it was not possible due to the limited time it has had to find a new chairman since the resignation of former board chair, Carina Åkerström, who resigned in March after just 11 days.

Alecta has struggled to appoint a permanent chair of the board since former chair, Ingrid Bonde, resigned in October 2023, amid two investigations by Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) over the pension company’s investments.

In January, the committee of Alecta proposed Lars Rohde to become the new chair but withdrew this due to a conflict of interest. After Rohde was proposed as the new board chair, the committee became aware that Rohde was planning to also accept to be proposed to another board in the near future. Following this, the committee instead nominated Åkerström, former CEO of Handelsbanken.

Currently, Jan-Olof Jacke, in his capacity as first deputy chairman, has taken over as chairman of the board, which Alecta’s nomination committee said “works well”.
“The nomination committee proposes that Jan-Olof Jacke be elected chairman of the board for the period until the ordinary Annual General Board meeting in 2025, or the earlier date when a new chairman of the board has been elected at an extraordinary board meeting,” Alecta said.

“The intention is that the nomination committee will continue the recruitment process to find a suitable independent chairman of the board.”

In addition, the nomination committee has proposed four new members to Alecta's board of directors. Their elections will be confirmed at the board of directors meeting taking place on 25 April 2024. The proposed new board members are Bo Kratz, Heléne Robson, Hans Fahlin and Viveka Strangert.

Six members are proposed for re-election, including the current chairman of the board, Jan-Olof Jacke.

"The nomination committee proposes four new names to Alecta's board of directors, three of which are independent, which in various ways strengthen the board's expertise and experience. They can contribute to the continued development and strengthening of Alecta," Alecta board of directors chairman, Kenneth Bengtsson, who is also convener of Alecta’s nomination committee.

Kratz has worked with asset management at companies such as Conning, ABN AMRO and Northern Trust, while Robson is general counsel at the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers.

Fahlin was head of asset management at the Second Swedish National Pension Fund from 2010 to 2022 and has also worked with asset management at Alfred Berg, among others. Strangert has worked with financial regulations and compliance at KPMG, Swedbank and Skandia/Old Mutual, among others.

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