CHANGES TO GROUP MANAGEMENT

Tom Rathke (50) has been appointed new managing director of Vital and group executive vice president in DnB NOR. Evlyn Raknerud, group executive vice president, Human Resources and Group Services, has decided to retire this August at the age of 60 in accordance with her pension agreement. Complete statement on www.newsweb.no Tom Rathke (50) has been appointed new managing director of Vital and group executive vice president in DnB NOR. Evlyn Raknerud, group executive vice president, Human Resources and Group Services, has decided to retire this August at the age of 60 in accordance with her pension agreement. Tom Rathke leaves his position as financial director in Vital and commences as managing director today. He will manage Norway`s largest pension company with total assets of NOK 223 billion, 950 employees and more than one million policyholders. Up till 2004, he was head of the mutual fund company Avanse. He has held managerial positions in If Skadeforsikring, Vesta, SAS and Dyno. Tom Rathke is a graduate of BI Norwegian School of Management and has a Master`s Degree from the University of Wisconsin and has an Advanced Management Program from Harvard University. Rune Bjerke, DnB NOR`s group chief executive, is very pleased that the best applicant was an internal candidate. `We have completed a very thorough process and considered both external and internal candidates. It is then pleasing that the best candidate was found internally in Vital. I look forward to a fruitful cooperation with Tom and am sure that he will head Vital in an excellent manner in future,` says Rune Bjerke. Evlyn Raknerud is retiring after 40 years in Postbanken, DnB and DnB NOR. She was chief employee representative of the Finance Sector Union in DnC and DnB during the banking crisis. In recent years, she has been a member of the group management team in DnB NOR and the former DnB. Group chief executive Rune Bjerke emphasises the important role that Evlyn Raknerud has had in the Norwegian financial industry and DnB NOR. `During the banking crisis in the late 1980s, Evelyn played a key role as employee representative. Her broad experience has been invaluable, ensuring that both fellow workers and employee representatives experienced the DnB NOR merger as a successful operation.`