Carina Akerstrom has resigned as chairman of the board of Alecta, Stockholm, after only a week in the role, according to a statement released by the pension fund.
Jan-Olof Jacke, vice chairman, will become interim chairman. Akerstrom is the former chief executive officer of Svenska Handelsbanken. Jacke is the director-general of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise.
"It is regrettable that Carina Akerstrom has made a changed assessment of her opportunities to complete the assignment as chairman of the board in Alecta and has chosen to resign," said Kenneth Bengtsson, chair of Alecta's nomination committee, of the sudden resignation. "No new information has come to light that we didn't already know. During the process, we have of course asked extensive questions to Carina Akerstrom about this. Our view is that there was no conflict of interest that could not be handled in the usual way."
In January, Alecta had withdrawn its nomination for Lars Rohde, former chief at the Danish central bank, due to conflict-of-interest concerns.
Alecta declined to comment any further about Akerstrom's swift departure.
In February, Akerstrom said Alecta was making its way out of a "serious crisis of confidence" after struggling with investments that "probably shouldn't have been made", according to Bloomberg.
Akerstrom had spoken at an extraordinary meeting of the pension fund's supervisory board in Stockholm on Feb. 22, after being elected to the top job.
In November, Sweden's Financial Supervisory Authority reported suspicions of corruption to the police in relation to Alecta's investment in real estate firm Heimstaden Bostad, a notice on the pension fund's website said.
Alecta is estimated to 1.2 trillion Swedish kronor ($114.7 billion) in assets.
The previous full-time chair, Ingrid Bonde, left in October, following $2 billion of losses at Alecta from failed investments in three U.S. banks earlier in the year, including Silicon Valley Bank.
