Ulrika Bergman

Ulrika Bergman is the Chief Investment Officer (Swedish title *Finanschef*) of the Nobel Foundation, the private institution in Stockholm that manages the endowment underwriting the Nobel Prizes. She was appointed on 8 March 2017 and took up the position on 29 May 2017, succeeding in the role responsible for the Foundation's investment strategy under the mandate — rooted in Alfred Nobel's will — to invest in "safe securities" and preserve the endowment over a perpetual time horizon. In her own words at the time: "It will be exciting and fun to work at an organisation like the Nobel Foundation, where asset management occurs with a perpetual time horizon and for the purpose of rewarding contributions for the greatest benefit to mankind."

Before joining the Nobel Foundation she spent a decade at SEB (Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken), which she joined in 2007. From 2012 she was CIO for Global Equities at SEB Investment Management, heading a roughly 10-person team that managed some SEK 170 billion in international equity and balanced mutual funds using quantitative methods. Earlier in her career she held a risk-management role at RPM and has associated experience connected to Swedish foundation and pension-capital management (references include Stiftelsen för strategisk forskning, Sydholmarna Kapitalförvaltning, Praktikertjänst Pensionsstiftelse and the Wenner-Gren foundations).

Bergman is a CFA charterholder and studied at Stockholm University (1996–2000). Her educational and professional profile is quantitative and markets-focused, which is reflected in the Nobel Foundation's disciplined, manager-driven allocation approach.

As CIO she is responsible for continuously monitoring and evaluating the Foundation's assets and developing proposals for asset allocation, investment strategy, financial instruments and manager selection — working closely with the Foundation's Executive Director and its Investment Committee. Note: while some databases label her a "CFO / Angel Investor" focused on seed rounds, that characterization is inaccurate; she is an institutional endowment allocator, not an angel/seed investor.

• Perpetual-horizon endowment mandate: Targets "a real return above three percent" annually, sufficient to fund prize money plus administration while preserving capital, consistent with Nobel's will to invest in "safe securities."
• Multi-asset allocation: At end-2022 the ~SEK 5.5bn portfolio was roughly 53% equities, 22% hedge funds, 17% fixed income/cash and 9% property/infrastructure; the mandate spans public equities, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, real estate and infrastructure.
• Hedge funds as a fixed-income substitute: Describes hedge funds as "replacements for fixed income with a risk-return profile between fixed income and equity risk," and as "a stable source of returns, offering valuable diversification properties that can help mitigate risks in a risk-off environment."
• Held allocation despite higher rates: "I initially thought we would increase our fixed income allocation, but after conducting a strategic review about a year or two ago, we decided to maintain the hedge fund allocation at 25 percent… hedge funds have delivered stable returns, delivering higher returns than we would expect from fixed income."
• Manager selection over direct deals: Given a small team and asset base, favours large, multi-strategy managers — "big hedge fund shops with thousands of employees" — with a "long track record, strong reputation, responsible investing policies." "We don't have many hedge funds in the portfolio, given our smaller asset base, so most of them are multi-strategy."