Appointments: Cartwright, Bestrustees, Tillit, PDP, Arc Pensions Law

Consultancy group Cartwright has hired former Royal Mail pension CIO Ian McKnight as a senior adviser.

In his new role, McKnight is responsible for supporting and developing new business strategies, the company said in a statement.

McKnight led the investment operations of the Royal Mail Pension Plan from 2009 to January 2023, when the scheme outsourced its internal investment to BlackRock. During his tenure, he oversaw the transfer of £32.5bn of pension assets to the UK government and was latterly responsible for more than £10bn across three schemes.

Robin Pearce, operations director at Cartwright, said: “Appointing expert individuals is critical to our high levels of client experience and satisfaction; Ian is no exception. He is extremely well known and connected in the pensions space, with a knowledge and expertise that is second to none.”

McKnight added: “Cartwright is a leader in the field with ambitious growth plans and a strong team who are continually looking at new and innovative ways to support their clients to reach their goals. They are unafraid to step outside the traditional comfort zones that bind many organisations in the industry and their ownership structure and full independence allows them to do so.”

Bestrustees adds lawyer to professional trustee roster

Bestrustees has hired Keith Burgess, a lawyer with over 30 years’ experience, as a professional trustee.

Burgess’ background is as a general counsel and company secretary to listed company boards. He has worked with defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes and has recent experience of active engagement with the Pensions Regulator.

Ann Rigby, chair of Bestrustees, said: “Keith is a great catch for our company and adds some excellent skills to the breadth of experience we already offer our scheme clients. He comes with a great deal of pension trusteeship experience already and we look forward to developing his trustee work further."

PDP names eight to advisory committee

The Pensions Dashboards Programme (PDP) has appointed eight industry figures to a new advisory group, designed to replace its steering group as the organisation evolves.

The 10 members of the steering group will be joined on the advisory group by:

• Geraldine Brassett, senior consultant at Willis Towers Watson
• Matt Burrell, public affairs manager at Phoenix
• David Cheetham, associate principal at Brightwell Pensions
• Chris Connelly, chief strategy officer at Heywood Pension Technologies
• Claire Neale, police pension adviser at the National Police Chiefs Council
• Graham Peacock, retirement proposition lead at FNZ Group
• David Poynton, product manager at Equisoft
• Mark Rowlands, director of customer engagement at Nest

Chris Curry, PDP’s principal, said: “Dashboards will be a success if we continue to work collaboratively across industry, regulators and government. The advisory group has an important role to play in shaping dashboards that will boost savers’ engagement with their pensions.”

Tillit appoints NED for pension push

Investment platform provider Tillit has named Daniel Meehan as a non-executive director as it prepares to enter the pensions sector.

He is currently growth leader at Link Group and has previously worked at pensions technology company Cushon, Capita, Willis Towers Watson and KPMG.

Felicia Hjertman, Tillit founder and CEO, said Meehan's appointment would “turbocharge” the company's entry into the workplace pensions sector.

Hjertman added: “The industry needs to do much more to empower members to take ownership of their pension. The first step on that journey is to encourage engagement by allowing more freedom of choice supported by high-quality, plain language information so that members can take action and make informed decisions.”

Arc hires Fraser as partner

Arc Pensions Law has hired Sonya Fraser as a partner. She joins from Sackers where she was an associate director.

Fraser worked at Sackers for more than 11 years, and has also worked at Allen & Overy in its pensions team. She will be based in Arc’s London office, which will soon be relocating to 100 Liverpool Street.

Arc senior partner Anna Rogers said Fraser’s experience with buy-in and buyout transactions would be particularly useful for clients approaching their endgame.

In addition, the law firm has also announced the promotion of Kate Payne to managing partner, replacing Rosalind Connor with effect from 1 April.

Payne joined Arc in 2017 from DLA Piper where she worked for more than 22 years. Connor has worked at Arc since 2016 and became managing partner in 2020.