Henri J Thoman, currently director of the executive body of KLM Pension Fund based in Amstelveen, has been appointed as the new chairman of the Dutch OPF, Association of Company Pension Funds, effective on January 1next. Thoman has been in various working groups with OPF since 1992.
Cees J van Rees is to step down as the chairman of the association by the end of the year. The annual OPF congress, with “Pensions: dynamics and solidity” as its theme, was held last month in Scheveningen, where van Rees gave his last speech as a chairman. He stressed the importance of the difference between pension funds and insurance companies and the recognition of this in the new Dutch pensions legislation. The investment policies, for example, between the two vary and funds deserve recognition in their own right van Rees argued.
l Markus Stadlmann, the former chief executive officer at Innovest Finanzdienstleistungs, the Austrian subsidiary of Siemens Financial Services, has been appointed as product specialist for global balanced mandates at WestAM, the $33bn (e38bn) institutional asset management arm of the German bank WestLB.