Carla Moonen, chair of Dutch healthcare pension scheme PFZW, has announced she is to leave the top role on 1 November after just a year and a half in the job.

In a joint statement, the €202bn pension fund and Moonen said that her departure was “amicable and with mutual respect”, after both had concluded that Moonen’s expertise and skills would be “of better use in another working environment”.

Moonen, 54, who took over at the helm at PFZW on 1 March 2017, said she became increasingly aware that her knowledge and skills would have more added value in an environment “where change could be quicker, where there would be more space for entrepreneurship and innovation as well as the implementation of a practical sustainability agenda”.

According to Albert Vink, PFZW’s deputy chair, Moonen had “skilfully and with acumen” guided the scheme’s governing process since last year.

Moonen is also chair of the industry association of Royal Dutch Engineers and a member of the executive board of the employer organisation VNO-NCW.

She is to continue as board member of the World Pension Summit and as a member of the supervisory board (RvT) of MVO Nederland, an organisation for socially-responsible entrepreneurship.

Moonen succeeded Hans Alders, who completed his maximum term, coming to PFZW from the water authority Brabantse Delta, where she was chair.

At that time, Moonen was also a member of the Global Green Growth Forum as well as an RvT member of scientific network het Groene Brein, which focuses on sustainability.”