Swedish pension provider Alecta is lining up Magnus Hall to take on the role of CEO, after several failed attempts at finding a candidate.

The chairman of Alecta’s nomination committee, Kenneth Bengtsson, has confirmed to Swedish financial newspaper Dagens industri (DI), the committee’s intention to appoint Hall to the role.

In a response to European Pensions, Alecta said Bengtsson has said: “I can confirm that we in full agreement and with strong support have appointed Magnus Hall as Alecta’s next candidate for chair”.

However, his appointment will be subject to approval from Sweden’s Finansinspektionen (FI).

Hall, born in 1959, is currently chair of the board of Södra, Göta Kanal-bolaget, Höganäs and Norrköpings Tidningar.

He was CEO of Vattenfall for almost six years before stepping down in 2020. Prior to that he was CEO of the Holmen Group for 10 years.

While employed at Holmen, he also served as chair of the Swedish Forest Industries Federation, and later chaired the Confederation of European Paper Industries (CEPI). He has an MSc in industrial engineering from Linköping Institute of Technology and has studied at Georgetown University on a Fulbright Scholarship.

Alecta has struggled to appoint a permanent chair of the board since former chair, Ingrid Bonde, resigned in October 2023, amid two investigations by Sweden’s Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) over the pension company’s investments.

In January 2024, the committee of Alecta proposed that Lars Rohde become the new chair but withdrew this due to a conflict of interest. After Rohde was proposed as the new board chair, the committee became aware that Rohde was planning to also accept to be proposed to another board in the near future.

Following this, the committee instead nominated Carina Åkerström, former CEO of Handelsbanken. However, she resigned in March 2024 after just 11 days in the role.

Since then, Jan-Olof Jacke, in his capacity as first deputy chairman, has taken over as chairman of the board.

It was revealed in July 2024 that Sweden’s FI found the troubled pension provider “violated several regulations” in relation to its investments.

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