Pensions industry movers and shakers w/e 8 September

LPFA appoints two new members to local pension board

The London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) has appointed two new members to their local pension board (LPB).

Together with the existing seven members, the new appointees, Luke Rigg and Natalie Watt will represent the views of the 122 employers and 96,200 members in the £7.6bn LPFA Fund.

Luke Rigg is a reward specialist at the Greater London Authority (GLA) and has previously been a policy adviser for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and has held various policy, strategy and equality roles at the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Haringey.

Natalie Watt is an experienced public sector governance professional with decades of experience working for organisations in local government and higher fducation. Now semi-retired, her career has spanned senior governance roles at a number offFurther education colleges, Wandsworth Borough Council and Westminster City Council.

The LPFA recently appointed a new LPB chair, Andy Cunningham, and Luke Rigg and Natalie Watt will replace Omolayo Sokoya and Sean Brosnan who have both come to the end of their terms.

Robert Branagh, chief executive of the LPFA said: “Good governance is important in ensuring that we provide a well-run and effective pension service, so I am delighted to welcome Luke and Natalie to our LPB. I would also like to thank Sean and Omolayo, our outgoing LPB members, for their time, dedication and support as we have grown our Fund and evolved our offer to our members and employers.”

Andrew Davies joins Standard Life’s independent governance committee

Andrew Davies will join Standard Life’s independent governance committee while retaining a board position with the Standard Life Master Trust Company (SLMTC) Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, has appointed Davies to the committee which oversees the interests of close to 2.8 million workplace and investment pathways personal pension scheme members. 

Davies will assume responsibility for the committee’s communications and engagement value for money (VfM) workstream, taking over this lead role from Jo Hill who is stepping down to take up a role at the Bank of England.

Davies has over 35 years’ experience in financial services covering pensions, wealth management, life, healthcare and general insurance, holding a wide range of senior management positions.

He currently runs his own management consultancy business specialising in strategic change as well as being a non-executive director on the Standard Life Master Trust board, He is accredited as a professional trustee by the PMI.

Additionally, Rona Cameron, an employer-nominated member of the IGC is stepping down after three years’ service to concentrate on her role as head of customer engagement with Standard Life.

Rachel Haworth, currently IGC investment pathways VfM lead, is moving roles to become the customer VfM lead from 1 October 2023, while Maggie Craig will extend her IGC responsibilities adding Investment Pathways VfM to her Comparative MI VfM role on the Committee.

David Hare, chair of the Standard Life independent governance committee, said: “Andrew’s appointment adds to the strength and depth of our Committee. He arrives with knowledge and experience of Standard Life through his SLMTC Board membership combined with significant scheme trustee experience.

"While creating a bridge between the two entities, his enthusiastic and collaborative working style is a good fit with the IGC, and his previous executive and consulting work with providers will boost the Committee’s capabilities in the contract-based pensions world.

“I’d also like to wish both Rona Cameron and Jo Hill all the best in their future roles and thank them for their efforts while serving on the IGC.” 

Jennifer Lawson joins First Actuarial

Jennifer Lawson has joined First Actuarial as investment actuary with key role in investment strategy modelling.

Lawson will be based in the firm’s Leeds office and will play a role developing and updating the company’s investment modelling tools in line with the new funding framework envisaged by The Pensions Regulator.

She spent the first six years of her career at Mercer’s investment consultancy team, joining the company as a new graduate straight from university. She then spent two years working at Aviva on data analysis and modelling.

Jennifer said: “I’m looking forward to blending client work with research and development work, specialising in investment strategy modelling tools. First Actuarial is giving me the chance to work on innovative and open-ended research, which can make a real difference to pension schemes but which may not be chargeable to clients.”