Vernooy to retire from Unilever scheme

NETHERLANDS - Alco Vernooy is to retire as managing director at the €3bn Progress pension fund at Unilever and be replaced by Loek Sibbing from Volker Wessels.

Vernooy’s retirement follows the departure in January of chief investment officer Walther Schapendonk amid a plan to pool the scheme’s equity assets, which account for 60% of assets.

The Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant said Sibbing, 45, would join the Rotterdam-based scheme on June 1.

Vernooy will retire after 31 years with Unilever on September 1.

Sibbing has been director of the €570m Rijswijk-based Stichting Pensioenfonds Koninklijke Volker Wessels Stevin since March 1999. He previously worked at Randstad Holding as corporate treasurer and pension fund director.