PFA Asset Management CEO Steps Down Less Than a Year after Taking Over

Christian Lindstrøm Lage, CEO of PFA Asset Management, the asset management arm of Denmark’s largest pension fund, will retire at the end of October after 12 years at the firm. Lage will be replaced by Irene Holmslykke (left), who will assume the role of CEO on Sept. 1. Lage had the top post for less than a year.

“Christian has made a big difference over many years and has played a leading role in developing the entire investment area in PFA,” Kasper Lorenzen, group CIO of PFA, said in a statement. “Not least in recent years as an important part of the management, where Christian has also been crucial for us to launch PFA Klima Plus in June.”

PFA said Lage is leaving the firm “by mutual agreement.”

Lage has only been CEO of the PFA Asset Management for 11 months, having taken the post in September last year. Prior to taking the helm of the firm, he was an executive director for over five years, and was CIO for over nine years. Prior to PFA, Lage had worked as a dealer at Danish bank Nordea for more than nine years.

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“I am super proud of the results ranging from bringing retirement, savings, and investment closer to customers to participating in PFA’s work to integrate global goals and responsible investment,” Lage said in a statement. “But it will especially be the development in the investment area across the value chain that is one of the things I am proud to have played a leading role in.”

The firm said that in her new role, Holmslykke will focus on the management and development of PFA Asset Management, while the investment responsibility will be handled mainly by the respective investment teams.

“She is an incredibly strong profile with broad experience across the financial and investment area, and then she is a really skilled leader,” Lorenzen said of Holmslykke. “She has the right competencies to lead the further development of PFA Asset Management.”

Holmslykke has been an executive director at PFA since February, and was head of risk, investment processes, and valuation for alternatives, fund accounting, and operations for a year prior to that.

Before joining PFA in January 2019, she worked at Danske Bank, Denmark’s largest bank, for more than six years in several positions in the investment area. Before Danske Bank, she held roles at private banking company Danske Markets for more than four years, and prior to that, she was head of risk management at mortgage lending services provider Realkredit Danmark, which is a unit of Danske Bank.

“There are many talented colleagues in PFA Asset Management who I look forward to working more closely with in my new role,” said Holmslykke. “We have undergone a great deal of development in recent years, and I myself have had my fingers deep in that process. I therefore know the organization well and look forward to lifting it further in the next phase of development.”

Holmslykke has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern Denmark in science and economics and a master’s from Copenhagen Business School.