Markus Altenhoff

Markus Altenhoff (reported age 62 as of early 2025) leads the capital-investment division of Ärzteversorgung Westfalen-Lippe (ÄVWL), one of Germany's largest occupational pension schemes, which provides retirement, disability and survivor benefits to more than 60,000 physician members in the Westphalia-Lippe region and manages roughly €14.6 billion in assets from its base in Münster.

He trained as a bank clerk (Bankkaufmann) and holds a degree in business administration. Before joining ÄVWL, he held senior roles at several banks, working in private wealth management and institutional securities trading. He joined ÄVWL in 2004 as department head for the securities and loans division, and was appointed Managing Director responsible for capital investment in October 2009.

Altenhoff's remit spans strategic and tactical asset allocation across securities and loans, real-estate portfolio and technical real-estate management, and — since a February 2025 management reorganization — ESG coordination. Under that restructuring, ÄVWL moved to a three-person, equally ranked management team; Altenhoff remained on the board with continued responsibility for capital investment, alongside Christian Koopmann (insurance operations/IT) and Dr. Ulrich Sonnemann (internal administration). ÄVWL's investment team is also known for advising and co-investing with other German pension funds.

The fund and its investment approach have been recognized in the industry, including winning a 2024 Alternatives Award from *portfolio institutionell*. ÄVWL reported a net return of about 4.1% for 2023.

• Long-term, anti-cyclical allocator aiming for stable, dependable cash flows to meet pension liabilities; ~4% is treated as the floor for required returns.
• Real estate is the cornerstone — over 20% of assets — diversified across the full risk/return spectrum and value chain, with at least ~70% kept in core/core-plus to secure sustainable cash flow while selectively pursuing value-add.
• Infrastructure is a major, deliberately unconventional sleeve (~15–20% of assets), targeting essential, hard-to-replace assets in constant demand; willing to be innovative and take on complexity for return.
• Private debt / asset-backed lending is a growing priority — including niche collateral such as ships and aircraft — reflecting a shift toward illiquidity-premium, cash-flowing credit.
• Private equity and fund investments complement direct holdings; listed equity is kept comparatively low (~10%).
• In his own words: *"Our approach within real estate is to diversify across the whole risk-return-spectrum and to cover the entire value chain."* On selling into strength, ÄVWL's ethos is captured by the headline *"Wir trennen uns notfalls unter Verlust"* ("we'll part with an asset even at a loss if we must") — underscoring discipline over trophy-chasing.