Monique Donders has been appointed head of institutional client business for the Benelux region at BlackRock.

Donders, in addition to managing the institutional client team, will oversee the asset manager’s Benelux institutional business, focusing on relationships with pension funds, insurers and government bodies.

She joins from Robeco, where she has served as chief risk officer for the last 13 years, responsible for developing and managing the Group Risk Management Team.

From 2000 to 2009, she was a professor of financial management at the University of Maastricht, responsible for the educational programme for risk management in financial institutions for master students.

Before then, she held a number of roles at MeesPierson/Fortis, the Institute for Research and Investment Services and Erasmus University.

Until recently, Donders was a member of the supervisory boards at Pensioenfonds Zorg & Welzijn (PFZW) and APG Treasury Centre.

She was also an external adviser to the ING and KLM pension funds.