Stockhom (NordSIP) – Timo Löyttyniemi, CEO of Finland’s State Pension Fund (VER), will retire in early 2026, having reached retirement age at the end of this year. Löyttyniemi has enjoyed a long and distinguished career at VER dating back to 2003, when he first joined Finland’s State Pension Fund as a managing director. He served in that role for 12 years before being appointed as Vice-Chair of the EU Resolution Board in Brussels from 2015 to 2019, after which he returned to the State Pension Fund as CEO.
Löyttyniemi has been an engaged and active CEO since taking over the role at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. During his time as CEO, Löyttyniemi captained the operations of the fund through several periods of market volatility. Through it all, he maintained an open engagement with the market and the public via a regular blog column where he discussed the pertinent developments of the day. In this manner, Löyttyniemi contributed extensively to the discussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, carbon footprint reduction, the market risks associated with climate change, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mario Draghi’s competitiveness plan for the EU, the impact of geopolitics on the green transition, and ways to finance rearmament in Europe.
Always a voice for sustainability, he argued in favour of creating a broad coalition of all of society’s stakeholders to maintain the momentum behind sustainable finance and the transition. In December 2022, Löyttyniemi was distinguished with the Pension Fund Leader award by IPE.
“The position of CEO of VER has been really interesting and I have enjoyed it very much. A real vantage point in the investment and financial markets. I will continue in my position until early 2026, and I will continue my career in board positions,” Löyttyniemi says. (Translated from Finnish)
Asked about his main sustainable finance accomplishments at VER, Löyttyniemi highlighted the steady improvement of sustainability strategies with very practical implementation. “An example has been to use carbon intensity as the key metric and having a goal to reduce carbon intensity of the portfolio. We have also achieved the set targets. Most recent achievement has been to create a sub portfolio named “ESG transition” in our equities portfolio. Idea has been to invest in active funds which are transforming bad companies into good ones.”
“Key challenge in going into future is the political and policy turmoil which is creating some uncertainty globally. However, I believe Europe plays its part and is advancing in all fronts also in the future,” Löyttyniemi tells NordSIP.
Applications for the position of CEO of VER will be open from mid-August.
