Appointments: LGPS Central boosts in-house team with multiple hires

LGPS Central, the pooling organisation serving eight local authority pension funds in the Midlands, has made a number of appointments to its investment team.

Louis-Paul Hill has been appointed as investment fund oversight and strategy manager, joining from consultancy giant Aon.

Hill has advised several Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds, including the Northern Ireland Local Government Officers’ Superannuation Committee, North Yorkshire, West Sussex and West Yorkshire.

He was also the lead adviser to the Merseyside Pension Fund for 10 years, and most recently provided independent investment advice to Cumbria Pension Fund.

The appointment comes as LGPS funds and pools face significant changes as a result of the government’s ‘Fit for the future’ consultation, which closes on 16 January. Among the proposals is a requirement for the pools to be able to provide strategic investment advice.

Richard Law Deeks, chief executive officer at LGPS Central, said: “I’m really pleased to be welcoming Louis-Paul to the Central team at such an exciting time for UK pooling. His extensive experience delivering advice to LGPS clients over many years will be an invaluable addition to the internal talent we already have.

“Louis-Paul’s new role ensures we continue to deliver a first-class service to our partner funds as we transition assets in line with the government’s vision for pooling.”

Meanwhile, LGPS Central has also strengthened its internal fixed income team, hiring Roger Webb from Abrdn and Simon Hancock from Tesco’s in-house pension team.

Carl Shepherd will also join the LGPS Central fixed income team from Newton Asset Management later this month.

PIC names two to board

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has announced Martin Pike and Tracey Graham as new members of its board.

Pike and Graham join as independent non-executive directors, while Graham is also joining the board of PIC’s parent company, Pension Insurance Corporation Group Limited.

Graham is to become a senior independent director of the specialist pension insurer, subject to regulatory approval, as well as a member of the audit, customer, and nomination committees.

Graham currently sits on the boards of Nationwide Building Society and Close Brothers and has had several other non-executive appointments at listed companies in various sectors. She is a former CEO of Talaris, a cash management solutions provider, and has held senior positions at De La Rue, HSBC and Axa Insurance.

Pike will join the company’s audit, investment and origination, and risk committees. He is currently chair of Greencore Homes, a housebuilder that he co-founded in 2013. He previously held non-executive roles at Abrdn, Esure, Faraday Underwriting and AIG Life.

Pike worked at Towers Watson – now WTW – for 30 years, latterly as managing director for risk consulting and software.

David Weymouth, chair of PIC, said the pair had “significant commercial and operational experience” as well as “extensive experience” as non-executive directors.

BESTrustees hires Gupta to trustee roster

Professional trustee firm BESTrustees has hired Sanjay Gupta from WTW as the latest addition to its trustee line-up.

His recruitment follows the hire of Alison Creasy, Sue Hunter, Russell Baird and Peter Redhead over the last few months.

Gupta worked at WTW as a senior director for 25 years, holding several scheme actuary appointments on pension schemes from £100m to over £1bn in assets. He has advised defined benefit and defined contribution schemes from both the employer and trustee perspective.

Ann Rigby, chair of BESTrustees, said: “Last year was a wonderful year for us, with five trustees joining since the end of the summer. That recruitment was to service new scheme appointments and the increasing demand for truly independent experts, so Sanjay joins us at an exciting time.”