Swedish pension fund Alecta’s chairperson resigns after a week By Reuters

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Alecta’s chairperson Carina Akerstrom has resigned only a week after she started in the position, the Swedish pension fund said on Sunday, adding it had reinstated its former interim chair.

Alecta said it would reinstate Jan-Olof Jacke, who was appointed Alecta’s interim chairperson in November 2023 when its former chair resigned.

“It is regrettable that Carina Akerstrom has changed her assessment of her ability to fulfill her assignment as Chairman of the Board of Alecta and has chosen to resign,” said Kenneth Bengtsson, chair of the nomination committee.

Alecta, which is Sweden’s largest pension fund, did not give a reason for Akerstrom’s resignation, but said that in its view there had been no conflicts of interest that could not be handled in the usual way.

Akerstrom did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

This is the second proposed chairperson that has not panned out after the nomination committee in January had to withdraw its proposal for former Danish central bank chief Lars Rohde due to a conflict of interest concern.

The committee said it had learned that Rohde was planning to take up another board post at a different firm, and would instead nominate Akerstrom.

Before starting her post as chairperson in Alecta, Akerstrom was the chief executive at Svenska Handelsbanken, where she stepped down last year.

Alecta has in the past year been the subject of two ongoing probes by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) over risk taking.

The pension fund has been criticised for its large investment into the heavily indebted property group Heimstaden Bostad as well as its investments into failed banks First Republic, Silicon Valley and Signature in the United States.