Jesus Martinez Rodriguez

A little background

Jesus studied economics in Spain. After working as a portfolio manager for AEGON, Jesus continued his career in the Netherlands. ‘My family and I love the Netherlands. We always wanted an international experience and we preferred being closer to the financial core. My wife and I thought we could grow a lot as professionals and would have a better work-life balance, which ended up to be true.’

Why PGGM?
Jesus had several reasons to choose PGGM. ‘First of all the size. The portfolio is very big, which means you can make more impact. You’re not just another investor.’ Jesus also liked the culture within PGGM. ‘I think we understand each other pretty well and share the same values. Coming from another culture, this is especially important for me. The fact that PGGM works for pensioners in health care was another big plus for me. A part of my family works in the health sector and living through the Covid-crisis while they wore working in the frontline was very difficult. That really changed my sensitivity towards the sector. Here it’s a specific sector for which I have a lot of respect and am willing to give back to.’

My work in a nutshell
Family and friends don’t really know what Jesus does for a living, it’s complicated to explain. ‘If I have to though, in a nutshell it’s investing the money of the clients in a way that they feel comfortable with.’

What Jesus likes the most about the sovereign asset class, is the fact everything is interconnected and you can explain what big groups of people do at a country level. How they behave and why. ‘Since I was really young I liked that kind of approach; to have a complete overview. I want to understand everything and I fail doing so. But here I get close. I like to read, I like to know what people think, and form my view.’ Jesus also likes the massive amount of data from all sorts of angles that comes with this job. ‘I specifically enjoy exploring stuff that relates to new topics like sustainability. Digging deep into the data and make sense out of it, forming a view.’