The European Pensions Awards 2013 judging panel is made up of judges from across the European pensions sphere to include providers, pension funds, consultants and representatives from various European pensions and investment associations.
The European Pensions Awards 2013 judging panel:
Associations
Matti Leppälä, Secretary General , CEO, PensionsEurope
Jerry Moriarty, Director of Policy, Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF)
Tim Reay, Secretary, International Employee Benefits Association (IEBA)
Vince Linnane, Chief Executive, Pensions Management Institute (PMI)
Pension Funds / Trustees
Bernard Abrahamsen, Director Trustee, M&G Pensions Scheme
Steve Delo, Chief Executive, PAN Governance LLP
Chetan Ghosh, Chief Investment Officer, Centrica
Chris Parrott, Pensions Manager, Heathrow Airport Holdings
Richard Poole, Legal Director, Pensions, Royal Mail Group Legal
Garry Wake, Secretary to the Trustee of the Trafalgar House Pension Trust
Consultants
Peter Ball, Managing Director, JLT Investment Solutions
Adrian Cooper, Head of Business Development, Trustee Clients, Barnett Waddingham
Sam Gervaise-Jones, Director, Business Development, bfinance
Dorothee Gnaedinger, Senior Associate, Mercer
Ben McDonald, Consulting Actuary and Partner, KPMG
Emma Watkins, Principal, Lane Clark & Peacock LLP
Matt Wilmington, International Benefits Actuary, Aon Hewitt
Providers
Rob Barrett, Institutional Sales, Invesco Perpetual
Georgina Beechinor, Associate, Sacker & Partners LLP
Simon Chinnery, Head of UK DC, J.P.Morgan Asset Management
Chris Connelly, Senior Consultant, aquilaheywood
Anne Healy, Senior Managing Director UK & Ireland, MFS International
Des Hogan, Head of Business Development, Thomas Miller Investment
Stephen Holt, Head of Institutional Business, Europe, Principal Global Investors
Julian Lyne, Head of Global Consultants & UK Institutional Business, F&C Investments
John Owens, Principal, First Avenue
Alistair Wilson, Head of Institutional Business, TwentyFour Asset Management
The European Pensions Awards 2013 judging panel:
Associations
Matti Leppälä, Secretary General , CEO, PensionsEurope
Jerry Moriarty, Director of Policy, Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF)
Tim Reay, Secretary, International Employee Benefits Association (IEBA)
Vince Linnane, Chief Executive, Pensions Management Institute (PMI)
Pension Funds / Trustees
Bernard Abrahamsen, Director Trustee, M&G Pensions Scheme
Steve Delo, Chief Executive, PAN Governance LLP
Chetan Ghosh, Chief Investment Officer, Centrica
Chris Parrott, Pensions Manager, Heathrow Airport Holdings
Richard Poole, Legal Director, Pensions, Royal Mail Group Legal
Garry Wake, Secretary to the Trustee of the Trafalgar House Pension Trust
Consultants
Peter Ball, Managing Director, JLT Investment Solutions
Adrian Cooper, Head of Business Development, Trustee Clients, Barnett Waddingham
Sam Gervaise-Jones, Director, Business Development, bfinance
Dorothee Gnaedinger, Senior Associate, Mercer
Ben McDonald, Consulting Actuary and Partner, KPMG
Emma Watkins, Principal, Lane Clark & Peacock LLP
Matt Wilmington, International Benefits Actuary, Aon Hewitt
Providers
Rob Barrett, Institutional Sales, Invesco Perpetual
Georgina Beechinor, Associate, Sacker & Partners LLP
Simon Chinnery, Head of UK DC, J.P.Morgan Asset Management
Chris Connelly, Senior Consultant, aquilaheywood
Anne Healy, Senior Managing Director UK & Ireland, MFS International
Des Hogan, Head of Business Development, Thomas Miller Investment
Stephen Holt, Head of Institutional Business, Europe, Principal Global Investors
Julian Lyne, Head of Global Consultants & UK Institutional Business, F&C Investments
John Owens, Principal, First Avenue
Alistair Wilson, Head of Institutional Business, TwentyFour Asset Management
Associations
Matti Leppälä, Secretary General/CEO, PensionsEurope, BrusselsBiography:
- 2001 - 2011 Director, Finnish Pension Alliance TELA
- LLM, University of Turku, Finland, 1987
- Executive MBA, Insurance and Financial services, University of Tampere, Finland, 2007
PensionsEurope represents national associations of pension funds and similar institutions for workplace pensions. It has 22 member associations in most EU-15 Member States and other European countries that have significant workplace pensions. Through its members PensionsEurope represents 77 million people and 3.5 trillion euros of assets.
Vince Linnane, Chief Executive, Pensions Management InstituteBiography:
Vince Linnane became Chief Executive of the Pensions Management Institute in July 2006. Before being appointed Chief Executive, during a career at PMI that has lasted more 25 years, he held the posts of Head of Product Management (from Sept 2005) and Head of Communications and Events (from 2001). Indeed many current Fellows of the Institute remember Vince as their first point of contact at PMI when he began running the PMI’s Educational Seminars for Students in the mid 1980s!
During his time as Chief Executive, PMI initiatives have included:
• The introduction of PMI TV – the Institute’s webcast channel highlighting interviews with leading pensions industry figures
• Making Continuing Professional Development compulsory for all qualified Members
• Making PMI membership regulations more transparent, accessible and open to encourage more pensions industry professionals to join
• Restructuring the PMI qualifications to a modular format
• Creating a fairer, quicker and more transparent process for election to Fellowship (the PMI’s most senior grade)
• Putting the PMI’s study support programme for Students entirely online
In October 2007 Vince received the Pensions Management magazine Outstanding Contribution to the Pensions Industry Award.
Jerry Moriarty, Director of Policy, Irish Association of Pension Funds (IAPF)Biography:
Jerry Moriarty is CEO of the Irish Association of Pension Funds having joined as Director of Policy in 2007. As the voice of Irish pensions, the IAPF represents the interests of scheme members, trustees and sponsoring employers. Its members provide retirement security to over 260,000 employees, pay pensions to nearly 90,000 people and are responsible for some €72bn in retirement savings.
The IAPF liaises with Government and the regulator to ensure policy supports and encourages pension provision. It also provides guidance and education to trustees of pension schemes.
Jerry was Head of Compliance with the regulator, the Pensions Board from for 6 years. Between February 1994 and October 2001 Jerry worked as a senior manager in various Pensions Technical roles with Sun Life Financial of Canada in the UK. He commenced his career with Irish Life in Dublin in 1989.
Jerry is a frequent contributor to the Irish media on pensions issues. Jerry also joined the board of PensionsEurope in November 2012.
Tim Reay, Secretary, International Employee Benefits Association (IEBA)Biography:
Tim Reay is an international benefits actuary and Principal with Aon Hewitt. He is leader of the French Global Benefits practice as well as a senior member of the UK Global Benefits practice, and is based primarily in Paris and London. He advises multinational corporations, organisations, and governments on all aspects of worldwide retirement and risk benefit provision for their employees including plan design, financing, valuation, consolidation of pension expense under international accounting standards, as well as the governance process including benefit inventory, strategy formulation, and monitoring mechanisms.
Tim joined the firm in 1984. He has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Oxford, is a Fellow of the UK Institute of Actuaries and speaks several European languages. He is Secretary and former Chairman of the International Employee Benefits Association, a regular speaker at international conferences, and a regular contributor to the media.
Pension Funds / Trustees
Bernard Abrahamsen, Director Trustee, M&G Pensions Scheme Biography:
Bernard has been a member nominated Trustee of the M&G Pension Scheme since early 2009. He has been involved in Pensions since 1991 and represented the National Association of Pension Funds to a Treasury Select Committee in February 2000.
Bernard joined M&G in 2002 as a Director of Fixed Income ,prior to which he worked for Schroders Investment Management as a Director responsible for the development of their Sterling fixed income business. Bernard started his career with Hoare Govett and has also worked for Rothschild Asset Management,
Bernard graduated from the University of Stellenbosch with a post graduate degree in Economics. He is an associate member of the Association of Investment Management and Research and an Associate of the UK Society of Investment Professionals.
Steve Delo, Chief Executive, PAN Governance LLPBiography:
Steve Delo is Chief Executive of independent trustee firm, PAN Governance, and Chairman of executive search firm, Moorlands Human Capital. He is independent chair of trustees for a number of prominent UK pension funds. A former President of the Pensions Management Institute, Steve’s experience includes senior roles in investment/retirement consulting and asset management. Prior to PAN, he was co-founder and Managing Director of investment manager, Escher TEAMS. Steve is an experienced conference speaker and a regular press commentator and columnist. In his career, he has won three major professional awards – Business Presenter of the Year, Pensions Personality of the Year and Independent Trustee of the Year.
Chetan Ghosh, Chief Investment Officer, Centrica Biography:
Chetan has worked at Centrica for the last 4 years where he is the Chief Investment Officer for Centrica’s pension schemes, and responsible for providing support to the Directors of the Investment Committee. His role covers investment strategy considerations, asset class and manager research, and the liaison with the investment advisers. His background is primarily from the consultancy side, where he spent 5 years as a pensions actuary and 10 years on the investment side, a large part of which was at Hewitt. In addition, he has spent time in the asset management industry at a multi-manager, Investment Solutions, where he developed their Fiduciary Management offering.
Chris Parrott, Pensions Manager, Heathrow Airport Holdings LimitedBiography:
Chris is Pensions Manager for Heathrow Airport Holdings Limited (formerly the British Airports Authority). Whilst his primary focus is the management of the Group's various pension arrangements that have a combined membership of 31,000 and assets under management of £2.8b, he is also involved in the operation of the Company's wider reward offering.
He has been working in occupational pensions since 1982 holding management positions for the operation of both public and private sector pension schemes.
Chris is a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute and has recently been elected to the PMI Council. He also is part of the Institute’s ‘Think Tank’ and a member of the External Affairs Committee. He also is a member of the International Advisory Council for the Association of Investment Managers Sales Executives ('AIMSE'). Chris regularly acts as a judge for a number of industry awards, primarily the European Pension Awards where he has been a member of the judging panel since their inception in 2008 and will be Chairman of Judges for the fourth consecutive year in 2013. Chris is a regular speaker at AIMSE events, has previously spoken at PMI and NAPF conferences and was the author of the 'Management & Administration' module for the NAPF's online 'Trustee Toolkit', the forerunner of the Pension Regulator's online training for trustees. He was the joint winner of the 2011 'Pensions Manager of the Year' award and has formerly acted as a tPAS advisor.
Richard Poole, Legal Director, Pensions, Royal Mail Group LegalBiography:
Richard Poole is the pension lawyer for Royal Mail Group, which has a number of pension schemes in the UK. He has been advising on the administration and management of the Group’s pension schemes since 2000, and more recently on the transfer of the Group’s historic pension liabilities to Government. Richard previously worked in the engineering and oil industries. Richard is an Associate Member of the Association of Pension Lawyers and trustee of a charity, the Rowland Hill Fund.
Garry Wake, Secretary to the Trustee of the Trafalgar House Pension Trust and Managing Director of Trafalgar House Pensions Administration Biography:
Garry’s career spans 25 years throughout which he has been responsible for delivering pensions administration services to clients and their members. He has worked in both third-party and in-house environments and across both the private and public sectors, having held senior management positions with Aon Hewitt and Towers Watson, before becoming Pensions Manager at Transport for London. He joined THPA as Managing Director in February 2008 and has been responsible for building the company’s third-party administration service model, which was launched to the market in 2010, and acting as Secretary to the Trustee of the Trafalgar House Pension Trust.
Consultants
Peter Ball, Managing Director, JLT Investment SolutionsBiography:
Peter Ball joined JLT Employee Benefits (JLT) in Sept 2011 and is Managing Director of JLT Investment Solutions. He sits on the Executive Board of JLT and has responsibility for the Investment Management and Investment Consulting business areas.
Previous to joining JLT, Peter was head of JP Morgan Asset Management's UK Institutional Business with responsibility for assets of approx $20bn and revenues of over $125m p.a. covering all forms of institutional clients. Peter also sat on the Board of the institutional life company which has assets of some £3bn and was responsible for the handling of investment consultancy relationships on a UK and global basis.
From 1993 to 1998, Peter worked for Fidelity Pensions Management and was instrumental in the development and launch of Fidelity's successful DC business, being responsible for the development of many of its key, market leading aspects.
Prior to this, Peter worked for Towers Perrin (where he qualified as an Actuary) providing benefit consulting advice to a wide range of UK companies with a particular focus on DC.
Adrian Cooper, Head of Business Development, Trustee Clients, Barnett WaddinghamBiography:
After gaining his degree in Management Sciences from The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), Adrian worked in financial services marketing roles including at Pearl Assurance, Lloyds Bank Insurance Services and St Paul at Lloyds.
He has subsequently specialised in the professional services sector, undertaking senior marketing business development and marketing roles in firms such as Clifford Chance, Towers Perrin and Sacker & Partners where he was Director, Business Development & Marketing.
Adrian then ran his own business development and marketing consultancy business advising a number of leading professional services organisations on both strategic and operational matters before joining Barnett Waddingham in 2012.
Sam Gervaise-Jones, Director, Business Development, bfinanceBiography:
Sam took up full time relationship management responsibilities in 2007 having begun with bfinance in 2004 as a Senior Associate in the research team. Previous to that he spent 4 years with Standard & Poor’s in their fund rating business. Sam holds the CFA charter, IMC and has an MA (Oxon) in Mathematics from the University of Oxford.
Sam has worked with many of bfinance’s insurance, corporate pension and local authority clients in both a research and relationship management capacity.
Dorothee Gnaedinger, Senior Associate, MercerBiography:
Dorothee has worked on internationalemployment and pension policies for the majority of her professional career. She is a Senior Associate at Mercer, analysing legislative updates relating to pension and health & benefit issues in the UK and Europe for Mercer consultants and clients. Dorothee is also writing a PhD at the University of Warwick, focusing on socio-economic factors influencing private pension provision in emerging markets.
Before joining Mercer, Dorothee was the Commercial Development Officer at the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) in London. At the PMI, Dorothee's responsibilities included the management of the institute's commercial and media relationships, product development and conference production. Dorothee is a regular commentator to the press and used to work as a financial freelance journalist for various international pensions magazines.
Prior to joining the pensions industry, Dorothee gained a wide variety of professional experience at Amnesty International (London), the German Embassy in Washington DC, as well as discovering the Mexican way of life at (then) DaimlerChrysler in Mexico City.
Ben McDonald, Consulting Actuary and Partner, KPMG Biography:
Ben is a consulting actuary and Partner at KPMG. He spent 10 years with Mercer before joining KPMG to help build the market-leading strategic corporate pensions team. He advises clients on all pensions-related issues such as funding negotiations, benefit design, pensions risk management, accounting for pensions and the pension implications of corporate transactions and restructurings. Ben’s clients include the AA, the BBC, Dairy Crest, Logica, Savills and TUI Travel.
Ben also advised the National Audit Office on its value-for-money review of the Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund on aspects of the levy formula.
Within KPMG, Ben is responsible for people matters within the 400 strong national Pensions practice.
Emma Watkins, Principal, Lane Clark & Peacock LLPBiography:
Emma is primarily responsible for consulting on buy-in and buy-out transactions and brings wide practical experience to companies and trustees, most recently built up at MetLife Assurance, one of the main pension buy-in and buy-out providers -at MetLife she was involved with over 40 separate transactions.
Emma also works closely with the Business Development area, building relationships with new and prospective clients who choose to appoint LCP as a specialist advisor for a buy-in or buy-out transaction.
Emma has over 14 years' experience in the pension industry. Prior to MetLife, she held a senior position at ACE and started her career in pensions at Prudential. She therefore has a unique blend of pensions and insurance experience including de-risking, trustee liability insurance and pension administration.
Emma is an experienced conference speaker and regularly comments in the press.
Matt Wilmington, International Benefits Actuary, Aon HewittBiography:
Matt Wilmington is a Principal consultant in Aon Hewitt's International Retirement and Global Risk Services practices. Matt is focussed on advising multinationals on global pension financing and risk management strategy and implementation, Matt was the author of the recent Aon Hewitt Global Pensions Risk survey and is a frequent speaker on pension risk related matters.
Matt leads the Aon Hewitt Global Longevity Solutions Group – a centre of excellence expanding the experience gained by Aon Hewitt in UK longevity risk and its management around the world - as well as leading many of the longevity risk transactions carried out by Aon Hewitt in the UK. Matt was the lead advisor to Rolls-Royce and Pilkington on their recent longevity swap transactions.
Providers
Rob Barrett, Institutional Sales, Invesco PerpetualBiography:
Rob Barrett recently joined Invesco Institutional Sales team based in London. Rob has 25 years’ experience in the UK & European Institutional Markets both as a Portfolio Manager and more recently in Sales and Marketing.
He has worked for several firms during his career, starting out at Hill Samuel, SSgA, AXA Rosenberg and more recently Swisscanto. Rob has been a member of the FTSE committee and is Secretary of the NAPF West London Group.
Georgina Beechinor, Associate, Sacker & Partners LLPBiography:
Georgina is an Associate at specialist pensions law firm Sackers. Having joined as a solicitor in 2001, she has been part of the firm's know-how team since 2008. Georgina is responsible for a number of the firm's client briefings (including the flagship Quarterly newsletter) and Sackers' responses to consultation on legislative and regulatory developments. She also plays an active role in training and development for colleagues and clients. Particular areas of focus include workplace pension reform, the current review of the EU pensions directive, pensions tax and investment matters.
Actively involved in the wider pensions world, Georgina is secretary of the NAPF City & Eastern Group and a member of the Association of Pension Lawyers. Fluent in French and Spanish, Georgina is also a member of the International Pensions Practice Group of the Ius Laboris Global Alliance for whom she has written, lectured and coordinated cross-jurisdictional publications.
Simon Chinnery, Head of UK DC, J.P.Morgan Asset ManagementBiography:
Simon Chinnery is a client advisor in the UK institutional team. He joined the company in the spring of 2005. Previously, Simon was the Director of UK institutional client service with ABN AMRO Asset Management since 2000. Prior to this, Simon was an Assistant Director with Schroder Investment Management for five years where he worked with both defined benefit and defined contribution institutional clients in the pooled pensions team. Before this he worked at Gartmore Investment, also in pooled pensions client service. Simon began his career in the City in 1983 as a registered representative, stockbroking for a large private client firm.
Chris Connelly, Senior Consultant, aquilaheywoodBiography:
Chris' varied role at aquilaheywood encompasses sales consultancy and product design. Chris has over 20 years in life & pensions administration, system support, software design and product management. His career has seen him work in senior roles across the market spectrum at leading firms such as NatWest, Bacon & Woodrow, Paymaster and Fidelity. Through these roles, Chris has gained a great breadth of experience with in-house pensions administration, third party administration, financial services companies, local authorities and central government schemes.
Chris' current activities include system and process design for auto-enrolment, pan-European PPI arrangements and other European Scheme challenges, and extending aquilaheywood's leadership across Europe. Chris is a regular contributor to the pensions press and has previously worked on a number of industry initiatives including the straight-through processing of investment transactions based on the ISO20022 message standard and the Pension Regulator's data quality and record keeping guidelines.
Anne Healy, Senior Managing Director UK & Ireland, MFS International Biography:
Anne Healy is Senior Managing Director of UK & Ireland for MFS International (U.K.) Ltd, a subsidiary of MFS Investment Management, and serves on the MFS Institutional Management Committee.
Anne joined MFS in 2005 from Schroders where she held the role of Director UK Institutional Marketing for 8 years. Working in the business development and client relationship management functions, Anne initially worked with internally managed pension funds, and later marketing to UK pension funds in both the corporate and public sectors.
Prior to this Anne worked for 8 years at Lloyds Investment Managers Ltd, where she had specific responsibility for developing the profile of the firm with UK local authorities.
She is a Committee Member to the National Association of Pension Funds West London Group.
Des Hogan, Head of Business Development, Thomas Miller Investment Biography:
Des Hogan is responsible for Sales and Marketing at Thomas Miller Investment, who provide investment management services for institutional and private clients.
Des has specialised primarily in the institutional pension scheme market and has been advising pension schemes and institutional clients on pension and investment issues for over 20 years. He has expertise in both Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution and also in traditional and alternative investment markets.
Currently, Des is the architect behind a practical and affordable solution for smaller defined benefit pension schemes, which involves introducing clients to a range of other pension services providers to deliver a better all round and tailored service.
Stephen Holt, Head of Institutional Business, Europe, Principal Global InvestorsBiography:
Steve is head of institutional business, UK & Ireland at Principal Global Investors (Europe) based in London. He is responsible for institutional sales and marketing strategy in Europe and acts as head of sales in the United Kingdom and Ireland, selling directly to institutions and indirectly through investment consultants. In addition, Steve serves as relationship director for various institutional clients.
Steve joined the firm in 2006. Prior to his current role, Steve was head of distribution, United Kingdom, at Santander Asset Management. His background also includes positions as head of institutional sales at Threadneedle Asset Management, as institutional sales director at Barclays Global Investors and as senior consultant and actuary at Hymans Robertson. Steve received a bachelor's degree in pure mathematics and statistics from Edinburgh University. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries.
Julian Lyne, Head of Global Consultants & UK Institutional Business, F&C InvestmentsBiography:
Julian joined F&C in June 2008 and is responsible for managing the UK institutional business and relationships with the global consultants. Prior to this, he had worked for HSBC Investments since 2003 latterly as Head of Global Consultant Relations and was previously Head of UK Institutional Business. Julian has a BSc Hons in Psychology from City University, London.
John Owens, Principal, First AvenueBiography:
John Owens has recently joined First Avenue as a principal. John is widely recognised as one of the UK’s leading institutional investment marketers, having raised capital for fund managers for over 20 years. Previously John was a Director at Mirabaud Investment Management and has led the institutional marketing efforts at Aberdeen, Aegon and Britannia asset management firms, after beginning his career in investment consultancy roles.
Alistair Wilson, Head of Institutional Business, TwentyFour Asset ManagementBiography:
Alistair joined TwentyFour in 2011 as Head of Institutional Business, with responsibility for building on the foundations already laid in this part of the business. The majority of TwentyFour’s assets are run on behalf of institutional clients including pension schemes, banks and insurance companies.
Alistair joined TwentyFour from Neptune Investment Management, where he had led their institutional business from its inception in 2005, growing it to around £2 billion and running monies for over 80 institutional clients including UK and European pension schemes. Alistair led relationships with all Global and European consultancies as well as maintaining relationships with key clients. Prior to this, Alistair worked for 7 years at Legal & General Investment Management as a Business Development Manager with responsibility for promoting LGIM’s funds to corporate pension schemes through a variety of investment consultants.