Andreas Lavstrand is the global director of pensions asset and liability management at the Volvo Group, a function he was tasked to set up from scratch in 2019, having formerly been part of the broader corporate finance department. The brief is to ensure a consistent, harmonised and transparent approach to the Group’s pension fund management globally. His role is both global and local. At the global level, he is responsible for defining the schemes’ guiding principles and priorities. Locally, he is very much hands-on with the day-to-day running of the six country schemes that are managed directly by Volvo.

Lavstrand serves as chairman of the board of Volvo Pensionsstiftelse, the Volvo group's biggest defined benefit pension fund with some €2bn in assets. He has led key recent structural changes, including redefining the entire mission statement and long-term objectives, moving from a pure asset-driven investment strategy to an asset-and-liability strategy that is both linked to the overall sponsor strategy and adapted to recent funding regime changes.

Essentially this saw the strategy transition from a traditional 60/40 equities/bonds portfolio into an allocation comprising 55% matching/defensive assets, 25% corporate bonds and 20% private assets. Part of this change was recruiting an external manager to run 40% of the portfolio.

Under Lavstrand’s leadership, the Volvo Group’s pension schemes have moved away from an internal asset management structure undertaking internal stock-picking, active trading, securities selection and option overlays to a strategy that invests solely via fund managers.

Another of Lavstrand’s notable achievements is overseeing the implementation of the first bespoke pooled LDI fund arrangement in Sweden for a corporate DB plan, combining both specific scheme and Swedish needs with best practices from the UK. This has resulted in a protective barrier against sudden drops in the scheme’s finding ratio and a priority to mitigating tail risks, in line with the wishes of the Volvo Group’s executive board.

Lavstrand is also chairman of Volvo Retirement Trust, the group’s second largest DB fund globally with some $1.5bn (€1.42bn) under management, and board or investment committee member of several other Volvo Group pension funds around the world. These range from DB to DC to hybrids that are closed, open and frozen. For all these arrangements, Lavstrand has been instrumental in recent projects to support their development.