Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM) has announced the integration of its active ownership and active management teams in a bid to enhance coordination between the active ownership and portfolio management teams, the investor announced today.
Under the new structure, Active Ownership, including voting and sustainability, will be led by global head Caroline Eriksen, and the team will be part of the wider Active Strategies Team under co-chief Active Strategies Daniel Balthasar.
The move comes a month after Carine Smith Ihenacho, the fund’s chief governance and compliance officer announced her departure from NBIM, she will continue in her current role until the end of the year.
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Ihenacho, whose nine-year stint at NBIM began as its global head of active ownership in 2017, played a key role in building the fund’s responsible investment capabilities. The new organisational structure will bring active ownership and active management teams together, under the same department.The active ownership function, which leads the fund’s voting and sustainability-related engagement efforts (now led by global head Caroline Eriksen) will fall under the purview of co-chief active strategies, Daniel Balthasar.
In a statement, NBIM said the move is intended to provide the fund with ‘shorter decision-making lines, closer coordination between ownership work and portfolio managers, and more holistic follow-up of the companies it owns’. CEO Nicolai Tangen says the move will strengthen the fund’s engagement and voting capabilities. “It strengthens our ability to safeguard the fund's long-term financial interests and to further build our engagement and voting”, he commented.
The fund’s policy engagement efforts will now fall under its external relations and communications. The changes announced today will enter into force on 1 January 2027.
