Investing in Productive Finance

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.

Steve Bates is the CEO of the UK Bioindustry Association, the UK’s Trade Association for innovative life science companies with over 550 members. Steve is the visible face of the vibrant UK life sciences industry to government and media. He serves on the UK Government’s Life Sciences Council and the UK Biosecurity Leadership Council.  

Steve was a founder member of the UK Government’s Vaccine Taskforce in the Covid crisis, sitting on its steering Board alongside Kate Bingham.

He is active member and former chair the International Council of Biotech Associations and has been a board member of Europabio since 2015.  

Paul Brine joined Dalriada in October 2022 as a Professional Trustee. 

He has 17 years of trustee experience, both DB and DC, and many more years with respect to risk management. Paul has worked with standalone schemes ranging from £50m to over £3bn. He has a commercial and strategic outlook to pensions and brings his industry experience to drive forward innovative solutions.

Paul’s non-trustee background is in fixed income, cash, derivative and credit markets, having spent 30 years in risk and capital markets in London and New York. 

He has chaired several boards and investment and risk management skills to benefit all boards he has served on. With his long developed financial professional skills, ranging from his risk management background to a comprehensive understanding of solvency, he works with colleagues and advisers on a peer-to-peer basis whereby two-way peer-to-peer constructive challenge always leads to better decisions, driving positive outcomes and improving the delivery of advisory services. He has an outstanding grasp of multiple asset strategies, both as trustee and practitioner, and has developed noteworthy manager monitoring processes. Paul has always focused on liquidity, and in 2020 instigated a significant structural review of a scheme’s liquidity profile “in the event that rates move significantly more than suggested”. 

Paul has a unique grasp of solvency within the trustee world, and has had sessions with risk transfer advisers so that the risk transfer team can “experience real challenge”. Paul has been publicly advocating the raising of trustee awareness of solvency issues as vital for any board considering an irrevocable risk transfer decision. He has also been approved as a Solvency II Life (Class 1) insurance company director. 

Paul holds an M.A. in Natural Sciences from St. John’s College, Cambridge.

Paul is Chief Investment Officer at Smart Pension and is responsible for the overall strategic design and management of the Smart Pension Master Trust investment proposition, and Smart’s relationships with its fund managers. He is a member of the Trustee Investment Sub-committee, and chairs the Scheme Strategist.

Before joining Smart Pension in February 2019, Paul was a Managing Director at BlackRock (and subsequently Aegon), leading their UK defined contribution workplace pension business. During his time at BlackRock, Paul drove the development and introduction of master trust and income drawdown products, as well as enhancements to the firm’s UK target date fund range.  He has also held senior positions at Fidelity, AXA and PwC.

John joined as Chief Executive Officer and an Executive Director of Railpen, in June 2019, having previously served for 12 years as a Director of the Railways Pension Scheme Trustee Company, and Chair for the last five years. John is also an Independent Trustee of the Nestle UK pension fund.

 John is a Chartered Accountant by qualification, and was previously Group Head of Pensions at National Grid. Prior to that John held senior financial, commercial and pension positions at a number of large companies, including Pricewaterhouse Coopers, South Western Electricity, Shell, HBOS and First Group.

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.

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.

Claire Felgate leads Blackrock’s strategic engagement and drives execution with consultant firms across the UK, Middle East and Africa regions. Her leadership encompasses both advisory and delegated, with key focus areas in defined contribution (DC), Local Consultants and Field Consultants. She partners closely across BlackRock’s client businesses, including the Institutional Client Business, Wealth and Family Offices, Endowments and Foundations and collaborates with investment colleagues across the firm to deliver the best outcomes for our clients.

Claire brings a wealth of experience with clients and consultants and a deep understanding of DC from her previous roles as Head of UK DC and as a relationship manager for a number of key DB clients.

Claire’s service at the firm dates back to 2011. Prior to joining BlackRock, Claire was a Relationship Manager at UBS Global Asset Management where she worked with a number of key institutional clients, with a strong focus on Real Estate. Claire started her career as an Analyst at Goldman Sachs.

Claire earned a BBusSci (Hons) degree in Marketing and Finance from the University of Cape Town. Claire holds the Investment Management Certificate and is also a CFA Charterholder.

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.

George joined the South Yorkshire Pensions Authority as Fund Director in February 2018. As Head of Paid Service is responsible for the management of all aspects of the Authority’s activity.

Previously, he was Managing Director of LPP’s pension administration business, having led the Lancashire County Pension Fund prior to the transfer of its staff to LPP as part of the creation of the joint venture with the London Pension Fund Authority. A fellow of CIPFA, George’s previous career in local government finance involved roles as Deputy County Treasurer at Lancashire County Council, Director of Resources at Rossendale BC and Director of Finance at Chorley BC. These were preceded by roles at Northamptonshire CC and Oxfordshire CC, where he did his CIPFA training.

George also represents practitioners on the Local Government Pension Scheme Advisory Board for England & Wales, and is a member of the Board’s Responsible Investment Advisory Group.

Silvia Knott-Martin joined the London CIV in October 2019 and brings with her 20 years of industry experience serving institutional pension investors in the UK, Continental Europe, and North America.

In her previous roles, Silvia has gained extensive experience as client portfolio manager, relationship manager and product specialist working for a number of global asset managers. At the London CIV, her role involves supporting the London LGPS in implementing their investment strategies to progress their pooling agenda.

James joined Foresight in 2007 and currently works as a Partner in the London office. He has over 15 years’ experience. James is responsible for originating, negotiating and managing growth and buyout investments in a variety of sectors, as well as supporting the wider team.

Prior to Foresight, James worked at Deloitte as a Strategy Consultant where he advised businesses in the healthcare and technology sectors. He has also been a professional athlete, rowing for Great Britain and winning a silver medal at the 2003 Rowing World Championships.

James holds an MA in Natural Sciences and Management Studies from Cambridge University as well as the CIMA Advanced Diploma in Management Accounting.

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.

Karen has worked in the finance sector for over 30 years. As well as being Founder of Pensions for Purpose, she is Deputy Chair of the Strategic Investment Board for the Ministry of Justice and a non-executive director and Chair of the Board of Resonance Ltd, a social impact investment company. She sits on the Advisory Council of the Impact Investing Institute.

Karen also provides independent investment advice to the London Boroughs of Islington, Camden and Hounslow through MJ Hudson. She was the Chief Executive/Managing Director of Allenbridge Epic Investment Advisers from 2010 to 2013. Prior to that, she had ten years’ experience as a fund manager and director for County NatWest and BZW Investment Management (now BlackRock).

Henry is the founder of both AgeWage and the Pension PlayPen, designed to map the pensions genome and ensure everyone gets data driven information on value for money. He has worked most of his career in pensions, most recently as a Director of First Actuarial, and notably at Eagle Star and Zurich Assurance.

He is a well known blogger on all pensions-related issues at henrytapper.com.