Sweden's Seventh AP Fund (AP7) chief executive officer (CEO), Richard Gröttheim, is to leave his role in 2023, the pension fund has announced.

He has been AP7 CEO for 12 years and has been working for the pension fund for 22 years.

The AP7 board is now beginning the process of recruiting a new CEO.

When AP7 began operations in 2000, Gröttheim was deputy CEO and took over as CEO 10 years later.

He has overseen significant growth in the pension fund, with AP7 managing SEK 970bn for more than five million premium pension savers, as at the end of 2021.

When AP7 replaced Premiesparfonden in 2010, 2.6 million savers with SEK 90bn were transferred to a new default alternative with large equity exposure, where investment risk is gradually scaled back as the saver nears retirement.

Savers have received an average return of 11.6 per cent since 2000.

“It has been a fantastic journey for which I am very grateful,” commented Gröttheim.

“The premium pension default alternative is a cornerstone of the Swedish pension system and I had the opportunity to develop it together with fantastic colleagues.

“The time is right to bring my operational career to a close and to hand over the baton to my successor.”

AP7 board chairman, Per Frennberg, added that the board would have liked Gröttheim to stay for a couple more years but it understood that he wanted to devote himself to other activities after a “long and dedicated service”.

“The financial result has been outstanding, the organisation is highly competent and the sustainability work has been exemplary,” he said.

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