NETHERLANDS - Ineke Schoenmaker, the managing director of the Actuarial Society (AG), has left the organisation as of March 1.

Schoenmaker, who had been working for the AG for 11 years, has made a major contribution in the organisation to develop into a professional and prestigious body, the AG said.

According to the AG, she has been closely involved in the development of the society's strategy, the split between advisory and certifying tasks, as well as the introduction of a uniform actuarial statement for pension funds and insurers.

Externally, she was the link between the AG and pensions umbrellas, research institutes and politics, notably during the parliamentary reading of the Pensions Act, and the new financial assessment framework, FTK.

Furthermore, Schoenmaker contributed to the establishment of the regular consultations between the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Switzerland on a common course on the international actuarial umbrellas, the AG stated.

According to AG's director of education, Anno Bousema, no successor has been appointed yet. "A decision will be made during the AG's annual meeting on 22 March. As part of a restructuring, the directorship will be changed into a single-headed one," he said.

Bousema indicated that he is amongst the candidates. Schoenmaker couldn't be contacted for comment.

Elsewhere, life insurer and pensions provider, Aegon appointed Louise Costikyan and Gerbrand Nijman as senior vice-presidents for investor relations.

Costikyan joined Aegon as vice-president, investor relations in 2005. Earlier, she has been an investment manager at the New York-based Teachers Insurance and Annuities Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), and an insurance analyst at Merrill Lynch.

Nijman, 43, was previously specialist equity sales director at Aegon.

Costikyan and Nijman started their new job as of March 1. They have taken over from vice-presidents investor relations, Michel Hulters and Marijn Smits who have left to work in Aegon's corporate institutional clients department and the company's Louisville, USA branch respectively.

The Hague-based Aegon is one of the world's largest life insurance and pension companies. It employs 27,000 staff in over twenty markets worldwide.