Appointments: Nest, PMI, Aon, First Actuarial, Cardano

Nest has appointed Mark Rowlands as head of retirement. He joined the master trust in 2017 as head of customer engagement and has previously worked at Mercer, Partnership Assurance and Axa.

In a post on LinkedIn, Rowlands said he would be working on Nest’s proposition “in the run up to, at and through retirement”.

“We know our members want a decumulation product which provides some flexibility in the early years of retirement, but in the long term provides a secure, consistent retirement income,” he said. “Due to behavioural and information barriers, our research shows they need this provided without necessarily having to do it themselves.”

Rowlands will lead a team including investment, customer experience and operations specialists to develop products and services for Nest members.

“This team will be advancing the introduction of the Nest Blueprint, which integrates mortality pooling into the investment design to increase income levels through retirement,” he added.

PMI re-appoints senior leaders

The Pensions Management Institute (PMI) has re-appointed Robert Wakefield as its president and Ruston Smith as its chair.

Wakefield, currently head of pensions administration at First Actuarial, chairs the PMI’s Advisory Council and is a non-executive director on its board. He was first elected PMI president in July last year.

Smith has been re-appointed for a second three-year term as chair. He holds several non-executive positions, including chairing the boards of the Tesco Pension Fund, Smart Pension and JP Morgan Asset Management.

Rosie Lacey, head of pensions and benefits at Costain Group, and Rachika Cooray, head of governance at LCP, will also remain as vice presidents.

Sarah Drummond, general counsel at the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, has also been re-elected to the PMI’s board, while Nicola Morgan, pensions director at Cummins, has been appointed to the Advisory Council.

Campbell takes responsible investment role at Aon

Aon has appointed Craig Campbell as UK head of responsible investment, overseeing the company’s work to support client decisions and develop new offerings.

Campbell has worked for Aon for much of his career, starting as an actuary in 2006. He spent four years at Hymans Robertson before returning to Aon in 2015. After a spell as a funding and covenant specialist at the in-house pensions team at National Grid, he rejoined Aon in 2021 as an investment consultant.

Campbell said: “The transition to a low carbon economy comes with both risk and great prospects for investors. More and more of our clients are fully integrating responsible investment within their wider investment choices and governance.

“I’m looking forward to bringing clarity and confidence to our clients’ investment decisions in this increasingly complex area, while using my role to influence the drive to a more sustainable future.”

First Actuarial announces promotes 14

Meanwhile, Wakefield is among 14 staff members at First Actuarial to be appointed associate partner, a new “layer” within its structure.

The new associate partners are Sarah Abraham, Marcos Abreu, Andrew Allsopp, Carl Fletcher, Martin Harlow, Scott Harrison, Phil Kelly, Katja Maiberger-Higgins, John Ingoe, Adam Michaels, Craig Moran, Natalie Ogden, Manoj Patel and Robert Wakefield.

David Joy, managing partner, said First Actuarial was “keen to recognise some of the firm’s most important people” and praised their “outstanding contributions”.

The company said the appointments were the first step in establishing a “new robust partner process” that will “become a necessary step for anyone wishing to achieve partner status”.

Cardano grows risk solutions team

Cardano has hired three new team members to its risk solutions unit, which advises pension schemes on insurance transactions.

Jonathan Repp joins as a director from EY where he spent almost six years advising trustees and corporations on buy-in, buyout and superfund transactions. He previously worked at Mercer for over 15 years.

Sonia Sandhu and Jacob Wooderson have joined as analysts. Sandhu joins from business technology platform HowNow and was previously at Mercer, while Wooderson joins from Standard Life where he was a bulk annuity pricing analyst.