A-P Fonden 3 (AP3), one of the Swedish national pension funds, has appointed Kerstin Hessius as chief executive, replacing Tomas Nicolin, who resigned earlier this year to join Alecta, a Swedish pension insurer and assets manager.

Hessius is currently executive vice-president of the Helsinki Stock Exchange integrated markets division and president of Stockholmsbörsen. She has been head of the Stockholm exchange since August 2001 and will leave at the end of August for her new role at AP3.