Austria’s VBV Group has restructured the board of its €8.1bn severance fund as it moves to further integrate the top management team with its pension fund arm.
As part of the reshuffle, in October, Christian Reiss will assume the position of CEO of VBV-Vorsorgekasse, following his appointment to the same role at the €10bn VBV-Pensionkasse in July.
At VBV-Vorsorgekasse, Reiss will also be responsible for human resources, legal, customers and sales, marketing and public relations, corporate social responsibility, digitalisation and business development, the group said in a statement.
Ronald Laszlo, currently COO of the group’s Pensionskasse, has been appointed to the management board of the severance fund. He will be responsible for administration, IT and AI and digitalisation, VBV said.
Michaela Attermeyer remains responsible for investment management for both funds.
With Martin Vörös overseeing finance, risk management, data protection and information security, the executive boards of the Vorsorgekasse and of the Pensionskasse now have a similar make up, VBV added.
The new structure at the severance fund further strengthens the strategic cooperation between VBV’s two core companies, the group said in the statement.
“Over the past few months, we, as the executive team, have worked intensively on how to position VBV for the years ahead. With this next step, we are creating the conditions to view the pension fund (Pensionskasse) and the severance fund (Vorsorgekasse) even more as an integrated unit,” Reiss said.
Ultimately, VBV intends to merge the investment departments of the two funds.
The restructuring of the management at the severance fund marks the latest step of a generational transition within the group, following the departure of Günther Schiendl, former CEO of the Pensionskasse.
Andreas Zakostelsky will remain group’s CEO until next summer.
“We laid the groundwork early on to ensure a long-term, orderly generational transition within VBV. It is important to me that this process is characterised by continuity and stability,” Zakostelsky said.
