Olivier Rousseau to head Georgia’s Pension Agency Investment Fund Council
By Tea Mariamidze
Tuesday, July 9
Rousseau was elected as the head by the Investment Council members of Georgia’s Pension Agency Investment Fund with the majority of votes.
Olivier Rousseau was appointed as executive director of the FRR in November 2011. He also chairs the asset manager selection committee. In 1986 he joined the French Treasury in Paris where he held various positions (deputy head of the division, head of division). He worked 11 years for BNP Paribas in international banking and finance in Paris, Tokyo, London, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Sydney.
He also served on the resident Board of directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London and as a regional economic counselor at the French embassy in Stockholm.
Rousseau graduated from the French National School of Administration (ENA) in 1986. He also holds a degree in political sciences and master degrees in law and economics from the University of Aix-en-Provence.
Georgia’s Pension Fund Investment Council has 5 members, out of whom only one is Georgian.
The Parliament approves the members for 5 years. Before that, the election commission of the Investment Board is formed.
The commission discusses the accepted applications and interviews with the candidates. After the process is completed, the commission submits the selected 5 members to the Parliament for approval. The Investment Council should define the Investment Policy of the Pension Fund.
All five members of the Investment Council will get salaries from the pension agency budget. Also, the Chairperson elected by the Investment Council members will be a member of the Supervisory Board, which is the controlling agency of the Pension Fund.
Except for Oliver Rousseau, the other members of the Investment Council are:
Davit Tsiklauri – He was the Chief Financial Officer of the Bank of Georgia until April 2019. He was the Deputy General Director of the Bank in the financial sector. Bank of Georgia disseminated information about Tsiklauri quitting from the bank's board of directors on April 2. Tsiklauri worked at TBC Bank for quite a long time. He studied at the Georgian Technical University and did his Master’s Degree in London Business School.
Timo Viherkenttä – He is the Executive Officer of the Finnish State Pension Fund. He worked in the Ministry of Finance of Finland on various positions such as the head of the International Tax Policy Department and headed the country's pension agency since 2015. As for education, he got has a doctor’s degree at Helsinki University.
Michael Ridley is an adviser to the Finance Minister of Iceland. Until 2015 he was deputy director of P. Morgan's London representation. He graduated from Oxford University.
Jean-Frederic Paulsen is a former adviser to the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Natia Turnava. But after being elected as a candidate for the Council, he resigned. Polson is a member of the ISET Governing Board of the International Economic School of Tbilisi State University. He studied at the Paris European Business School and also at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Georgian Parliament elected Davit Tsiklauri and Jean-Frederic Paulsen for three years and the other three board members for 5 years. They will have to travel to Georgia at least once per year. Their working hours will amount to 72 hours, which makes only 9 working days a year.