NETHERLANDS – PGGM, the 45 billion-euro Dutch healthcare and social work pension fund which just submitted a recovery plan to the regulator, has named a successor to chairman Dick de Beus.

PGGM said that Karel Noordzij, 57, would become chairman of the executive directors from March 15 next year.

Noordzij is a former chairman and general manager of Dutch transport and logistics body Transport & Logistiek Nederland and director of Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. He was a director and interim chairman of the Dutch state-owned rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen for six months in 2002.

He will join PGGM, the Netherlands’ second largest pension fund, late in 2003.

Announcing his resignation as chairman in January this year, the 57-year-old de Beus said: “This was a decision that I took for myself many years ago.” He has been with PGGM for around 25 years.

De Beus will continue working for PGGM as a consultant after he leaves. PGGM spokesman Alfred Kool said de Beus would be active on the European pension scene.

Asked about Noordzij’s lack of experience of the pensions industry, Kool said: “He has plenty of time to prepare himself for this job. He’s very adaptive and motivated.”

Kool said Noordzij would bring managerial expertise to the fund. “What we need is someone who can lead PGGM.”