Our Advisory Board

Robert is a pensions professional with an extensive business background. He has worked for trustee, not for profit, private equity owned, and insurance businesses over the last 30 years. Robert transitioned the Office of the Paymaster General from a public to a private sector outsourcing business in the late 1990’s and worked with Cabinet Office to establish the joint venture which became MyCSP. He has also managed the back office or pension functions for several pension schemes, including the NHS, Civil Service, Royal Mail Statutory scheme, and the £20 billion Railways pension scheme. Currently, he is the Chair of the Armed Forces Pension Scheme, a Governor of the Pensions Policy Institute and sits on the Board of Local Pensions Partnership Administration (LPPA), a fully-owned subsidiary of Local Pensions Partnership (LPP).

Robert is a regular speaker at pensions and employee benefits events and is a regular contributor to the UK pensions industry press. He is passionate about ensuring that members and employers at LPFA obtain the best support and service in an increasingly challenging pensions environment. At the LPFA, Robert’s focus is to provide support and quality service to members and employers, to support the development of and oversee LPP activities, to help the LPFA Board fulfil its statutory objectives and to work with interested stakeholders to ensure LPFA is an efficient, sustainable and well-run pension fund.

Sally is an actuary with extensive experience in innovation, risk management and responsible investment across investment management and pensions. She was CEO of the BP Pension Scheme in 2007-14 after twenty years with Aon Hewitt working as a consultant and in investment research.

Her non-executive portfolio has included roles as trustee and investment committee chair at the Nuclear Liabilities Fund, NEST Corporation and the Lloyds Bank pension schemes. Sally’s non-executive portfolio currently includes Chair at Impax Asset Management Group plc, non-executive director at insurers Royal London, Pension Insurance Corporation and Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance, and at Local Pensions Partnership (LPP) Limited, where she chairs its regulated investment company.  

Sally is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and has served the actuarial profession on its Council and professional committees. In the City of London, Sally is a Liveryman with both the Wheelwrights’ and the Actuaries’ Companies, having held office as the first lady Master of the Worshipful Company of Actuaries in 2016-17.

Sally’s passion for maths education is evident in her work as a member of the Royal Society’s Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (ACME) and as Chair of the Strategic Advisory Board for the Centre for Mathematical Cognition at Loughborough University. Sally is an Honorary Group Captain in 601 Squadron of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, introducing diverse ideas to the way that the Senior Leadership Team of the RAF think and work. 

Fiona is currently Group Head of Pensions & Benefits at Rolls-Royce Plc. Her role is a hands on one in the UK, with fiduciary and strategic responsibilities outside the UK. Fiona is also global lead on Financial Wellbeing strategies. Fiona has previously held in house Pensions and Reward lead roles at Thomas Cook Plc and Electricity North West.

Prior to her in-house roles, Fiona spent 14 years at the Big 4, in consultancy roles. Fiona’s passion is financial wellbeing, improving general numeracy skills and better supporting people in making effective short and long term financial decisions.

Mike runs a responsible investment advisory firm, Ario Advisory. With a background in investment management, governance, pensions and insurance, much of his work is concerned with the financial risks of climate change. He works across the investment sector with asset owners, investment managers, policymakers, regulators, investment consultants and NGOs.

Among his roles, he represents IFoA (actuaries) on the Sustainable Finance Advisory Council at the Oxford Smith School and sits on the WHEB Asset Management independent Advisory Committee. He has recently left the Brunel (LGPS) board, where he was a NED (chairing Audit&Risk, more recently Remco), and he was Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee for their 2018 Green Finance inquiry.

Andy enjoys a portfolio career as a trustee and Non Executive Director. In the world of pensions, he is Chair of Trustees of the Nat West DC Plan, a NED at Capital Cranfield, and a member of the Investment and Funding Committee of the Lloyds Banking Group DB pension schemes.

Until 2019, Andy spent 30 years at Aon as an actuarial and Investment consultant, was a member of the Global Retirement & Investment Leadership and CEO of Aon Hewitt Ltd in the UK. He also sat on the Aon Global Operating Committee.

In his spare time, Andy enjoys skiing and scrambling with his family and has recently passed his private pilots license.  He is also looking forward to more success supporting Wales on the rugby pitch.

Jo joined the Local Government Association in January 2021 as Senior Pensions Secretary, and also acts as Deputy Secretary to the Local Government Pension Scheme Advisory Board.

Before joining the LGA, Jo worked as a senior policy adviser on public service pensions at HM Treasury for 4 years.

Prior to joining HM Treasury, Jo worked for the Department of Health as a policy manager on the NHS Pension Scheme for just over 3 years.

Marian is the Global Head of Risk & Sustainability at GFG Alliance. 

Prior to joining GFG, she was a Managing Director at Redington and before that led Deloitte’s Trustee Advisory team in London. Her experience covers pension risk management, sustainability, trusteeship, scheme actuarial work, corporate advisory and investment consulting.

Jill is Head of LGPS at Redington, supporting LGPS funds to meet their strategic objectives by advising on strategic asset allocation, climate change and net zero, impact investing, and broader investment strategy. Redington advise a range of funds across the LGPS – led by Jill, with the support of the wider Redington LGPS team.

Having worked directly in the LGPS sector for 18 years at a senior level, Jill understands what it means to run an LGPS fund and the challenges they face. She regularly contributes to events, conferences, and roundtables, and is a strong advocatefor responsible investing for delivering both sustainability and impact alongside the financial returns required to pay pensions.

Previously, Jill worked as a fund manager for over 20 years. Her primary focus was on equities, but she was also involved in strategic asset allocation and derivatives.

Laurie has spent a lifetime in pensions, investment and retirement related areas. He is a non-executive director of NOW Pensions Limited, a member of the Independent Governance Committee of Zurich UK, and chairs B Different, a financial services research agency. He is a Commissioner of the Financial Inclusion Commission, and a member of advisory boards of Lincoln Pensions and Fairer Finance.

He has been a trustee of the Quest School for autistic children for 15 years and is a member of the ‘Employ Autism’ Development Board. established by Ambitious About Autism.

A founder director of NEST, of the Pensions Regulator and of the Money Advice Service, Laurie chaired Marine and General Mutual Assurance and the ABI’s pensions and savings committee. During his executive career he was corporate development director of AEGON UK and deputy chief executive of National Provident Institution. He was appointed CBE for services to pensions reform in 2006. Laurie is a fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and of the Pensions Management Institute.

Debbie is the Deputy Head of the Clwyd Pension Fund, a £2.4bn Local Government Pension Scheme and a member of the Wales Pension Partnership (WPP).  

She represents The Clwyd Fund on both Private Markets and Responsible Investment working groups within the WPP and represents the WPP on the Responsible Investment Cross Pool Group and also the Scheme Advisory Board Responsible Investment Advisory Group. 

The Clwyd Fund has investments with many Private Market managers and Debbie is a member on several of those investments Advisory Boards. 

Debbie has also recently been appointed as a Non-Executive Director for Pensions For Purpose. 

In her spare time, Debbie enjoys taking her dogs and grandchildren away camping and caravanning.

Mark is a Trustee and former Chief Investment Officer of the Nationwide Pension Fund, where he had responsibility for the performance and implementation of the asset allocation strategies agreed with the fund investment advisors.

Previously, he led the establishment of Nationwide’s Covered Bond programme and its Silverstone RMBS Master Trust funding vehicle. In addition, Mark has securitised UK Student Loans and a synthetic corporate bond structure along with structured transaction and investment in various ABS instruments. Past experience also includes leading the origination and structuring of social housing, PFI and commercial real estate debt transactions.

Ian is a highly experienced pensions investment executive. Most recently, he has been the Chief Investment Officer at Lloyds Banking Group Pensions, overseeing some £40 billion of assets across both DB and DC sections. He joined Lloyds from Aviva, where he carried out a similar role. Prior to that, he was the CIO of the Pension Protection Fund. Ian is also a member of the actuarial profession’s Finance and Investment Board, while also being Chairman of EPFIF’s Pension Fund Investment Advisory Committee.

Toby Nangle is an Independent Economic and Financial Markets Commentator. He spent 25 years in the asset management industry, most recently as Global Head of Asset Allocation at Columbia Threadneedle, where he led an award-winning asset allocation investment team of 26 professionals, based across four time-zones, managing c$160bn AuM for a range of institutional and retail clients. 

Ben is currently Secretary to the Trustees of the Royal Mail Defined Contribution Plan. Previously, Ben worked at JLT until 2014, advising a portfolio of clients as Investment Consultant. His role at Royal Mail is broader and has included dealing with the challenges of Communications and with the “Freedom and Choice in Pensions”.

Chris is a former Pensions Minister, who now serves as Chair of the Financial Inclusion Commission, of the Lending Standards Board, of the Equity Release Council Standards Board and of The Money Charity. He is an Independent Director of the Current Account Switch Service (Pay.UK) and of Cape Claims Services, and is a trustee of GambleAware and the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute.

Chris is a member of the Treasury FinTech Delivery Panel. He has been Chief Executive of two national charities and chair or trustee of many others and was formerly Director of Financial Capability and Head of Consumer Affairs of the Financial Services Authority.

Julius spent his executive career working with DC pensions in both the insurance and asset management industries. In his subsequent non-executive career, Julius has held a number of independent pension and investment governance roles. He was one of the founding trustee directors of NEST Corporation and chaired both its investment and risk committees.

Elizabeth is Chair of the Trustees of the Aviva Master Trust, and is also a member of the Audit and Risk Committee. She was appointed in May 2020, following her retirement from her executive career on 31 March 2020. Elizabeth was Trustee CEO of the HSBC (UK) Pension Scheme, from January 2015 until her retirement, leading the team which was accountable to the Trustee, which managed the large and well funded DB scheme and the largest single occupational DC scheme in the UK.

Elizabeth is also the non-executive Chair of the Management Board of Barnett Waddingham LLP and a trustee of two charities. She was a Senior Partner at Mercer Limited (2003-2014), where she latterly was a member of the UK Leadership Team. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and cut her teeth in the pensions industry as a pension scheme auditor at Price Waterhouse, and then PwC.

Chris is the Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of ClearGlass, which provides investment-cost reports to pension funds by collecting data from asset managers according to the standardised formats developed by the FCA Institutional Disclosure Working Group (IDWG), which Chris chaired. He is MD of FiNexus, a knowledge-transfer and research organisation. He also advises the UK Government, Regulators, the World Bank and various trade bodies on pension fund Corporate Governance and Cost Transparency.

He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Leeds and Professor of Practice at Newcastle University Business School.

Sophia joined XPS Pensions Group in June 2020 to lead their DC business, helping clients deliver top class DC services to their members. Prior to that, she led Aon’s DC Consulting business. Sophia has over 24 years’ experience in the UK pensions industry and advises corporates and trustees on a range of DC pension solutions, developing and delivering DC strategies that optimise scheme design, ensuring effective governance and improving member outcomes. She is a well-known industry and media commentator on DC market developments and feels passionately that we must tackle short-term financial resilience as well as deliver better long-term post-retirement products, if we’re going to help today’s workforce to retire with the security and lifestyle they want; she is regularly quoted in the press and presents on DC issues at industry events.

Magnus has provided data and research to asset management clients to help address distribution-related challenges since 1994. In 2008, he co-founded Spence-Johnson to concentrate on providing data-based research services to institutional asset managers and insurers. In 2017, Spence Johnson was acquired by Broadridge, and up to 2021, he was helping to build Broadridge’s Global Distribution Solutions, consulting capabilities from London. He is now a Director at FidesIQ, an online monitoring and reporting tool, which enables pension fund trustees to capture the true objectives behind their strategic investment decisions. 

In addition to his role at M&G, Mark is a Member of the Independence Governance Committee at Zurich Insurance; Executive Chairman of the UBS (UK) Pension & Life Assurance Scheme Investment Committee; and a Member of the Investment & Funding and DC Committees at Lloyds Banking Group Pensions. He was previously the Chief Investment Officer of HSBC Bank Pension Trust (UK) Limited, who he joined in 2011.

Prior to this, he held a number of senior investment roles at Prudential/M&G. These included UK Equity Fund Manager, Head of Equity Research, Director of Collective Investments, and Investment & Strategy Director for Prudential Europe. 

Mike was appointed Chief Executive Officer of LGPS Central Ltd. in March 2019. He was previously Chief Executive of the Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PiP). Mike had been Chief Investment Officer for the DMGT pension schemes and worked as an Investment Director in the City managing institutional equity portfolios at asset management firms such as Hermes and Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.

In 2013, Mike was appointed as an Independent Trustee of the Institute of Cancer Research Pension Scheme. He has also served as a Non-Executive Director of the NAPF and as Vice Chair of its Defined Benefit Council.

Mike holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and graduated from Cambridge University with an MA in Natural Sciences.