Morten Hemmingsen barely managed to reach his one-year anniversary as CIO at Pensam before stepping down.

Hemmingsen, who has lead investments at Pensam since May 1 2016, resigned from the pension fund at the beginning of May. Pensam is now on the hunt for his successor.

"I have had some very good and very informative years at Pensam. But I believe that I have come to a place where those things, that I believe are fun, and which give me energy and which I am good at, made up too little of the job," says Hemmingsen to Finance Watch Asset Management.

He explains that his resignation is a personal decision and calls his departure "entirely undramatic."

"I am not slamming the door behind me, nor have I been thrown out," he stresses.

Pensam reveals to FWAM that CEO Benny Buchardt Andersen is temporarily taking over CIO duties until a permanent successor is found.

It was Buchardt Andersen who Mortensen took the post over from when the former took up the CEO post in spring 2016. Prior to that, Hemmingsen was part of Pensam's investment team, where his activities including formulating and rolling out the pension fund's investment strategy.

Wants to remain in the industry

Hemmingsen says that he is not yet able to reveal his next move.

"What I would like is to come back to something that is more investment oriented and has less of an administrative role which is a significant part of the job as CIO," he says.

"Even though as CIO you are very involved with investments via others, you don't have time to sit and examine things yourself. I want to do that again."

Did anything about the CIO position surprise you?

"I don't want to make more out of it than there is, only to say that I believe that sometimes in life you need to stop and find out, whether you are spending time on what appeals the most. I don't want to cling to a job because of title or salary. Going to work should be meaningful."

That Hemmingsen has not wished to remain at Pensam in another position is because he has already had eight good years in the company, and that he therefore believes that he is ripe for new inspiration and to learn something new.

"I don't have anything against landing a job in a Danish life and pension company. Many of my peers do really good work. It's not because I'm escaping the industry," he says, while declining to comment on whether he has mapped out his fate more concretely yet.

Pensam's press department has informed that a process has been initiated to find Hemmingsen's successor, but will not elaborate further on a time line, or whether it is looking externally alone.

English Edit: Lena Rutkowski