Vervoer CIO to Take Up Northern Trust Role

(January 24, 2014) — Northern Trust has hired Pensioenfonds Vervoer’s CIO Patrick Groenendijk to become a practice leader in their fiduciary management team in Chicago, aiCIO can reveal.

Groenendijk will be taking up the newly created role from June this year. He will be working with the multi manager programmes targeting pension funds, insurers, private investors, and foundations.

Between now and June, aiCIO understands that Groenendijk will remain as CIO at Vervoer. He will assist with finding a replacement and smoothing the transition.

aiCIO requested comment from Northern Trust, but the manager chose to decline on this occasion.

Groenendijk is a well-known figure on the Dutch circuit, and has been a frequent member of aiCIO’s Power 100 lists.

Having spent more than eight years in the CIO position at Vervoer, Groenendijk was one of the earliest adopters of fiduciary management.

In 2010, after becoming one of the first to embrace investment outsourcing, the €14 billion fund fired Goldman Sachs Asset Management out of a fiduciary management contract and is pursuing litigation through the London High Court.

Vervoer retained its belief in fiduciary management as a concept however, and brought in Robeco to take over the role.

Speaking to aiCIO in December, Groenendijk said he thought outsourcing was “a great idea”, but he was concerned about some consultants’ lack of experience in the field—observing is only part of the job, he said.

Vervoer’s assets are slotted into investment mandates by Robeco, which itself runs money but is not allowed to allocate to its own funds.

“This means that if we miss out on stellar performance as Robeco is the best European high-yield manager—which it is by the way—then so be it,” he said.

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