Dutch telecoms group KPN announced that Marcel Smits, CFO since 2004, will leave the company by the end of the year. He “expressed the desire to pursue his career in a more internationally-oriented environment,” the company said in a statement. Before a permanent replacement is found, controller Carla Smits and Eric Hageman, the CFO for KPN’s international mobile unit, will share (Marcel) Smits’s duties.
Insurer Swiss Life named Thomas Buess as its new CFO. He joins from Allianz, where he most recently served as head of “operational transformation.” Before Allianz, Buess rose through the ranks at Zurich Financial Services. He replaces Thomas Müller, who will leave Swiss Life at the end of June.
Søren Thorup Sørensen is quitting his post as CFO of Danish shipping group AP Møller-Mærsk at the end of the month. “I have to realise that, for some time, the heavy work load has been damaging to my health,” Sørensen said in a statement. “I have therefore decided to leave my position and the group. The timing seems right.” Unfortunately, the outgoing CFO’s final act will have been to report the company’s first quarterly loss in more than 50 years. A replacement has not yet been named.
SVG Capital, a London-listed private equity firm, promoted Lynn Fordham from finance director to chief executive. She joined the firm in July from BAA, an airport operator. The CEO post at SVG, which has been struggling with large writedowns in the value of its portfolio, has been vacant since March; Nick Ferguson, who has been filling in, will now return to his role as chairman.