NETHERLANDS - Dirk Wieman is set to leave his post as CIO of Timeos, the newly coined manager of GBF, the €12bn Dutch pension fund for the printing industry.

Wieman had served as CIO for Timeos' predecessor - Printing Industry Funds (GBF) - for the past six years.

A former deputy CIO at Fortis Investments Netherlands, he had been recruited as GBF's director of investments in the summer of 2006 to implement a more active investment strategy and improve performance.

Wieman's approach has been to promote an 'open-ended' in-house investment capability, cultivating a strong in-house investment department able to retain overall control of investments while hiring external managers to run most of the assets.

To help retain expertise, a small part of the assets was managed in-house by Wieman's team.

During his tenure, the manager generated returns - including hedging portfolios - for the printing industry fund of 3% in 2007, -17.8% in 2008, 14.5% in 2009 and 10.7% in 2010.

Preliminary figures for 2011 show a return of 6.6%.

According to Timeos, the parties were in full agreement that the time had come for Wieman to "find a new challenge".

The decision comes at a time when the pensions manager is changing course.

GBF changed its name to Timeos late last year to end the strong association with the printing industry, in a bid to attract other pension fund clients outside its traditional area of operations.

And in late February of this year, it was revealed that Credit Suisse Transition Management had been hired to reshuffle GBF's investment portfolio, a move that Timeos has said resulted in a "low-cost and successful" adjustment that simplified the portfolio and reduced risk.

According to Wieman, the changes effectively changed the pensions manager's role.

"It is a role that no longer suits the way things were for me as a true investor," he said.

"For this reason, I will now focus on a position that will give me the opportunity to occupy myself with investing as much as possible."

The Dutch pension fund for the printing industry serves nearly 2,500 employers, with some 45,000 employees, and manages pension benefits for 50,000 pensioners and more than 100,000 ex-employees.

The scheme has assets under management of €12bn.

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