(December 13, 2012) — ATP, the Danish national pension fund, has named a former Citigroup banker as its new CEO to replace Lars Rohde, who will become chairman of the nation’s central bank in February.
Carsten Stendevad, 39, has been with the global bank since 2002 and most recently was global head of the financial strategy group in New York. He will join ATP no later than May next year, a spokesman for ATP said, with CIO Henrik Gade Jepsen acting as CEO in the interim.
Stendevad is a graduate in economics and has a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
He began his career at the Central Bank of Denmark. He was born in the country, but grew up in Belgium. He is fluent in Danish, French, has conversational German and basic Hindi.
Prior to Citi, Stendevad worked for consultants McKinsey & Co., based in New York and Copenhagen, advising bulge bracket investment banks on growth strategies and operational restructurings, the bank’s website says. He also helped establish McKinsey’s International Development Practice and advised, among others, the United Nations.
“In many ways, Carsten Stendevad is the natural heir to Lars Rohde, who has done a fantastic job at ATP,” chairman of the ATP Supervisory Board Jørgen Søndergaard said. He added that it was essential to find a new CEO who could lead ATP from its current strong platform and take it to the next level.
Stendevad joins ATP as the fund flies high on world-beating investment returns and sophisticated hedging strategies.
The fund made DKK41.2 billion ($7.1 billion) in the third quarter of this year, which was equivalent to a 7% return, despite difficult economic conditions. Last year, the fund made 20%. This followed an impressive five-year run: In 2005, ATP made investment returns of just over 6%, in 2006 around 4.2%, and in 2007, 2%. A 6% loss in 2008 was followed up by a return of 4.3% in 2009 and 6.8% in 2010.
In November, both Rohde and Jepsen were named on aiCIO’s inaugural Power 100 list. Anders Hjælmsø Svennesen, associate director in investment allocation across risk categories, was named on our inaugural Forty under Forty of the brightest prospects in institutional investment.
The fund was also nominated for aiCIO‘s Industry Innovation Awards 2012.