PGGM promotes infra head to private markets CIO

Dutch pension fund manager PGGM has promoted its head of infrastructure, Frank Roeters van Lennep, to private markets chief investment officer.

As CIO at the asset management arm, PGGM Investments, Van Lennep replaces Ruulke Bagijn, who left PGGM in May to take up a newly created role as global head of real assets private equity at the €65 billion AXA Investment Managers – Real Assets, a real estate portfolio and asset manager based in Paris.

Van Lennep is stepping into the shoes of an influential industry reformer. Bagijn has received accolades for her efforts to hold the private equity industry to account over issues such as remuneration and its link to performance.

Van Lennep, who started at PGGM as head of infrastructure on 1 January 2015, will continue to hold the position until a successor is found, the pension said. PGGM invests in infrastructure mostly directly, though it was among the limited partners that helped bring Macquarie's pan-Asian infrastructure fund to a $3.1 billion close in February.

Before joining PGGM, van Lennep spent 14 years at KPMG Corporate Finance, where he was a partner responsible for debt advisory and infrastructure activities.

Van Lennep started his career at the infrastructure-focused National Investment Bank, headquartered in Curaçao, the Dutch Caribbean; while at NIBanc, he helped set up its mortgage business. He then spent several years as head of structured finance at ABP Investment, the asset management unit of Dutch pension fund ABP.

Zeist-based PGGM is structured as a cooperative with about 700,000 members. It serves institutional clients, offering asset management, pension fund management, policy advice and management support. As of 30 June, it had €200.2 billion in assets under management, making it the second largest pension fund in the Netherlands after ABP, which had €372 billion in AUM as of the end of June.