Christian Mosel, the chief executive officer of Ärzteversorgung Westfalen-Lippe (ÄVWL), the pension fund for doctors in the Westphalia-Lippe region in Germany, has left the scheme in mid April, IPE has learnt.

The CEO has exercised an early retirement option underpinned by a mutual agreement with the scheme, according to sources close to the situation.

The departure of the CEO, who held the position ÄVWL since 2017, was due to a confidential personal matter.

Prior to joining ÄVWL, Mosel was deputy chair of the board of Bank J. Safra Sarasin in Germany, member of the executive board of Cominvest Asset Management, a subsidiary of Commerzbank, and board member of the Generali Deutschland pension fund.

Chief investment officer Markus Altenhoff is currently the only member of the management board of the pension fund.

ÄVWL will soon start a search for a CEO to work alongside Altenhoff, as the scheme is still discussing an arrangement for Mosel’s successor, IPE understands.

The scheme manages old-age, occupational disability and survivors’ pensions for more than 60,000 members and pensioners. It has approximately €14bn in total assets, with a total amount of contributions standing at €643.5m, according to the pension fund’s latest financial statement.

It has built up its directly-held bond portfolio with increasing interest rates, channeling liquidity and other funds into the bonds market, seeing investment opportunities in critical energy infrastructure, CIO Altenhoff said.

The pension scheme also holds a range of Spezialfonds investing in bonds and alternatives. It finances 80% of member guaranteed benefits through capital funded strategies, applying an implicit interest rate equal to the discount rate. The remaining 20% of the guaranteed benefits are funded through a pay-as-you-go system.

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