Menno Snel quits ABP pension fund
ABP director Menno Snel will resign from his job at the pension fund on 1 September. Last month he took on a new job at NOGEPA, an association for the oil and gas industry. According to the FNV faction, where the AOb involved, there was a conflict of interest.
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'I don't want to embarrass any parties', says Snel in a press release. As a board member at ABP, he has been chairman of the investor committee since 2020. In addition, he took on an additional position at the NOGEPA, which was approved by the ABP. In a press release, the fund now announces that Snel is stopping because some of the supporters had doubts whether the two functions could be combined.
Critical
The FNV faction in the accountability body, which checks the ABP board afterwards and advises on policy beforehand, was very critical about the secondary function. Auke van Nie, who, on behalf of the AOb In the accountability body, he called it a miraculous combination that he didn't really understand. The AOb wants the ABP to become 'greener'.
The ABP board and Snel thought it was possible, because they are both committed to a sustainable energy transition. In a press release of the NOGEPA, the ABP director stated that he actually wants to make a contribution and go green. Until that happens, according to Snel, it is nevertheless important to continue producing natural gas.
ancillary functions
Corien Wortmann, chairman of the ABP, is sorry to miss Snel's expertise. "We came to this decision together," the press release reads. The pension fund will also examine the policy for additional positions. The unions have already asked critical questions about this before. For example, they wanted to know what policy ABP applies when choosing additional positions. The fund then pointed to a code of conduct which states that a substantive assessment is always required when assessing additional positions and that this may not lead to conflicts of interest.
