Sweden’s KPA Pension has hired former financial markets minister Peter Norman’s deputy as its chief executive, following the announcement of Lars-Åke Vikberg’s departure.

Erik Thedéen, who was state secretary in charge of state-owned companies and the AP fund system reform until Sweden’s 2014 general election, was hailed as a “powerful” personality by Jens Henriksson, KPA’s chairman and chief executive of parent company Folksam.

He will take up his new role 13 April.

Prior to joining the Ministry of Finance in 2010 as deputy to Norman, a former managing director of AP7, Thedéen was president of Nasdaq OMX in Stockholm and spent seven years as head of the debt management department at Riksgälden.

He began his career in 1989 at Riksbank, the country’s central bank, and has also worked at Brummer & Partners and JP Bank.

Speaking to IPE last year, Thedéen suggested the AP funds could consolidate their “costly” alternative and real asset holdings into a single fund, leaving two other buffer funds to oversee inexpensive portfolios.

The suggestion came after the Swedish government accepted recommendations to reduce the number of buffer funds from its current five to three.

Read IPE’s 2014 interview with Erik Thedéen on the reform of the Swedish buffer fund system