In the series "We take care of your pension!" you get an inside look at your pension fund. Meet board members and other (former) colleagues who have a role in ensuring a good IFF pension.

A brief introduction

Jos Stelder (70), formerly general manager of IFF Nederland, is currently the pension fund's key internal audit officer. Quite a mouthful, but what does it entail and how does it benefit the participant? 

Jos Stelder worked for IFF for a total of some fifteen years. First he held a commercial position with the flavours part of IFF in the Benelux. Then he switched to a customer, the present-day Frito-Lay. Eight years later he returned and eventually became general manager of IFF Netherlands, until 2001. The last ten years of his working life he was Executive Director at the global industry organization IOFI (International Organization of the Flavor Industry). In 2016, he retired.

Key function: additional reassurance

The mandatory appointment of key function holders at pension funds is an extra safeguard built into a European directive, IORP2. The aim is to ensure that this is regulated properly and uniformly throughout the EU. Some countries are better organized in terms of pensions than others. In the Netherlands, we might not even really need the key functions. And because we also have limited resources at the IFF Pension Fund, we try to organize it as efficiently as possible.'

The role of key function holder

There are three such key functions. Risk management is about properly managing all the risks that a pension fund faces. The actuarial function is concerned with matters relating to insurance. And the internal audit key function holder checks that everything runs as agreed, both within the pension fund and with, for example, De Nederlandse Bank as the external regulator.

Jos Stelder: "Let me give you an example. The pension fund has agreed its responsible investment policy and how it wants to implement it. As a key supervisor, I check whether the pension fund actually does what it has agreed, whether the right procedures have been followed, and whether that, for example, complies with the instructions from the Dutch Central Bank.

I'm not a board member, but I do attend the board meetings. That way I know what's going on, and that's valuable for my role as key holder. I've been doing it for two years now and I've been able to establish that the pension fund has its affairs in order and that the policy is being implemented in an orderly fashion. So that's an added reassurance for the members.'

‘Raise your voice!’

In my role as employer, I already had dealings with the pension fund during my working years, and then I was approached at a certain point about the breeding ground for potential new board members. This is an important initiative, because it is quite difficult to find people in our own ranks who are willing to commit themselves to the pension fund.

I am chairman of a classic car club, in my garage there is a 40 year old Mercedes SL that I lovingly keep in good condition. It's the same with our pension fund. Therefore, I do have an important message for the active members. If a pension fund only runs on the efforts of people who are no longer working, then at some point that will start to falter. We also need active members who want to make their voices heard and work for the pension fund. So let us hear from you!