NETHERLANDS - Rob Bakker, director of partner contacts at Dutch pensions network Netspar, is to leave next month, the organisation has announced.

Bakker, 54, will become full-time senior adviser at management consultancy Andersson Elffers Felix, for whom he has already been working part-time, he said.

Netspar, or Network for Studies on Pensions, Ageing and Retirement, is based at Tilburg University and is the brainchild of academic Lans Bovenberg.

Bakker was responsible for the exchange of knowledge between the academic and market partners.

“Before the official start of Netspar, in March 2004, Bakker has contributed as a freelance adviser to securing the market partners within the organisation,” Netspar said.

“Moreover, he has established an extensive cooperation between Netspar and Statistics Netherlands CBS, on the exchange of pension expertise and an improved data entry for Netspar researchers.”

Before he joined Netspar, Bakker was director of the former pensions regulator Pensioen en Verzekeringskamer, or PVK. He has also been researcher at the national planning bureau CPB and head research at insurer Nationale Nederlanden.

Bakker is a consultant on pensions, supervision and insurance markets at the International Monetary Fund.

According to Bakker, no decision has been taken yet on his successor at Netspar.