©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Carina Akerstrom, CEO of Svenska Handelsbanken, arrives at a news conference to present the company’s third quarter results at Handelsbanken’s headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, October 23, 2019. TT News Agency/Janerik Henriksson via REUTERS
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Alecta president Carina Akerstrom resigned just a week after starting in the role, the Swedish pension fund said on Sunday, adding that it had reinstated its previous interim president.
Alecta said it is reinstating Jan-Olof Jacke, who was named Alecta’s interim president in November 2023 when its former president stepped down.
“It is regrettable that Carina Akerstrom has changed her assessment of her ability to fulfill her role as chair of Alecta’s board of directors and has chosen to resign,” said Kenneth Bengtsson, chair of the nominating committee.
Alecta, Sweden’s largest pension fund, did not give a reason for Akerstrom’s resignation, but said it believed there were no conflicts of interest that could not be managed in the usual way.
Akerstrom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This is the second proposed president that was unsuccessful after the nominations committee in January had to withdraw its proposal for former Danish central bank chief Lars Rohde due to a conflict of interest.
The committee said it had learned that Rohde was planning to take another board position at another company and would appoint Akerstrom instead.
Before taking over as president of Alecta, Akerstrom was CEO of Svenska Handelsbanken, where she resigned last year.
Alecta was the subject of two ongoing investigations by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) into risk-taking last year.
The pension fund has been criticized for its large investments in the heavily indebted real estate group Heimstaden Bostad, as well as its investments in failed banks First Republic, Silicon Valley and Signature in the United States.