SWITZERLAND/UK - Swiss pension fund consultant, Felix Kottman, has been awarded an honorary doctorate at the UK's University of Birmingham, as his work predicting the recent economic crisis allowed the university pension fund to make positive returns, rather than lose money.

Kottman is well-known in the Swiss pensions market but Birmingham University has praised his expertise and presented an honorary degree after "Kottmann saw the signs of a looming financial crisis sooner than most professional market participants".

More specifically, the university said Kottman had devised strategies and recommendations that "not only prevented this leading British university's financial assets from major capital losses  but in fact contributed to a sustained increase in the value of the portfolio".

In his laudatory speech, Professor R.B. Jackson, public orator of the University of Birmingham, said Kottmann's investment ideas "stand apart from the mainstream" yet confidence in his strategies was not swayed "by the herd instinct pervading the financial world".

The pension fund's strategy, under Kottman's guidance, is understood to have been designed to minimise investment risk, protect the portfolio from major capital losses and optimise its returns by continually "banking the profits".

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