“As long as I can keep learning, I’m in the right place”

Who are the people who deliberately choose to work in the pension industry? What do they actually do all day for your pension? And what do they enjoy about their work? We take you behind the scenes. Alex Rensen is a Senior Index Manager at APG Asset Management. “When something no longer challenges me, I start looking for what does give me energy.”

You’ve been with APG since 2001. What has kept you here?

“The opportunities. When I started here, my main focus was learning the ins and outs of asset management. But over time, I discovered just how many directions you can take within a large organization. You can move left, right, up or sideways. There are always new challenges.

I started in investment administration and have held several different roles since then. At Asset Management, I worked as a business consultant and application manager, helped set up Vendor Management, and then spent 15 years in contract and vendor management. Something new kept coming my way. I’ve never really felt that I had to leave APG to keep developing myself.”

Last year, you made another career move. Why?

“After 15 years in the same field, I noticed the work was changing. I’d always really enjoyed relationship management and talking with people, but more and more of my job consisted of checks and administrative processes. I was spending an increasing amount of time behind my laptop.

That’s when I thought: if I want to learn something new, now is the time. A new team focused on index investing was being set up within APG Asset Management. Index management was partly new territory for me, and that was exactly what appealed to me. You have to invest in learning again, and you’re challenged in new ways. I like that.”

For people outside the financial world, what does a Senior Index Manager actually do?
“I play a central role in designing, implementing, managing and monitoring custom and other indexes. These indexes form the basis for index strategies and large parts of APG’s portfolios.

My role is to make sure changes are implemented properly and that everyone involved has the right information at the right time. That requires a lot of coordination. Among other things, I maintain relationships with external index providers, coordinate with different teams within APG and make sure everything runs smoothly from an operational perspective. And if a problem comes up somewhere, I try to resolve it as quickly as possible.”

What makes the work interesting?

“What may be surprising is that a large part of the job is actually about people. Of course, you need to understand the technical side, but I think the biggest value I bring is connecting different parties. At APG Asset Management, you work with all kinds of teams: Legal, Risk, portfolio managers, Operations and external providers. Everyone brings their own interests and expertise.

That’s where one of my strengths lies. I know a lot of people across the organization and often know who to turn to when something needs to get done. That helps me move quickly and connect the right people.”

What are you most proud of?

“That I’ve continued to develop myself. Some people are perfectly happy doing the same kind of work for years, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I’ve learned that new challenges give me energy. I want to keep learning.

Sometimes that means being a beginner again. That was true in this role as well. I had to learn a new field and build up new knowledge. That’s exactly what made it interesting.”

How important is having a large network within the organization in your role?

“Very important. An organization like APG is large and complex, with a huge amount of knowledge and expertise. Sometimes a colleague you happen to know has exactly the solution you need.

Because I know a lot of people, I often know where to find specific knowledge and experience, which helps me get things done quickly. In the end, it often comes down to collaboration.”

You have an unusual hobby: visiting castles and vineyards. Where does that interest come from?

“I’m interested in history. When I visit a castle, I’m not just impressed by the building itself. I want to know why it’s there, how it changed over the centuries and what choices people made along the way. That’s why my wife and I often visit castles together. Every place has its own history, and that’s what makes it so fascinating to me.

We also discovered that you often find vineyards near castles. That’s where my passion for wine began.”

Do you see a connection between that hobby and your work?

“Yes, actually. With a castle, what you see from the outside is only a small part of the story. It’s only when you look more closely that you begin to understand how everything fits together.

The same is true of organizations. You see a process or a system, but behind it there are always people, decisions, interests and history. I enjoy discovering those connections and understanding how things work. Maybe that curiosity is the common thread in everything I do.”

A lot has changed in your personal life in recent years as well.

“Let’s just say my life looks very different from a few years ago. I became a father again, and these days I combine my work with taking care of our children. I also got married this summer at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, where my wife was born. It was a very special experience, and it was only possible because we have an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the family. It was a unique opportunity and a wonderful day that exceeded all our expectations.”

You live close to APG’s office in Heerlen. Don’t you ever get tired of seeing it?

“No, not at all. When I open the curtains at home, I can see the APG building in the distance. Some people would hate that, but I don’t. I’ve built up a lot of great memories here and still really enjoy working here. APG has given me opportunities, the freedom to try new things and the confidence to do so. I really appreciate that.”

How do you see your future?

“I’m nowhere near done learning. Will I still be doing exactly the same work five years from now? I don’t know. But I can still see myself at APG. Maybe in a different role, maybe in a completely new field.

I’m not someone who gets bored easily. When I see opportunities to grow, I explore them. As long as there are new things to discover, I’m in the right place.”