Christian Mosel is taking over as main managing director at the €12bn Ärzteversorgung Westfalen-Lippe (ÄVWL).

He succeeds Andreas Kretschmer, who has chaired the board at the pension fund for doctors in the German province of Westfalen-Lippe for 25 years.

Until the start of the year, Mosel had been working for the German branch of Sarasin, the Swiss asset manager and banking group, as head of institutional business and deputy chairman of the board.

Kretschmer will stay on as adviser to the ÄVWL on some investment boards, he confirmed to IPE.

Mosel started his new job with effect from 1 April.

Under Kretschmer’s leadership the pension fund has won several IPE Awards, including best German Versorgungswerk two years in a row (2015 and 2016), and best infrastructure investment as well as fixed-income investment in 2016.

Over the last decade the ÄVWL has built significant in-house expertise for real asset investments, especially infrastructure.

In 2011, it successfully joined forces with other “Versorgungswerke” pension schemes to acquire shares in high-voltage grid operator Amprion from energy giant RWE.

The ÄVWL has also taken over asset management for several smaller Versorgungswerke.