Avida International has announced that Chris Hitchen has joined the consultancy as a senior consultant.

Hitchen is a well-respected leader in the pensions and investment industry and a former chair of Pensions UK, the trade body for the UK pensions industry.

Throughout his career in pensions and investment, he has worked as a CEO, trustee, non-executive director and consultant, including almost 20 years at Railpen as CEO and CIO.

More recently, Hitchen has helped to drive consolidation as the inaugural chair at Border to Coast, the £100bn Local Government Pension Scheme pool, and as the first investment committee chair at Nest. He has also served on the Board of the Toronto-based International Centre for Pensions Management.

Currently, he serves as chair of the Nuclear Liabilities Fund and a board member at the Scott Trust Endowment.

In addition to this, Hitchen is a fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and an honorary fellow of CFA UK.

Commenting on the appointment, Avida UK managing partner, Bart Heenk, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Chris has decided to join us.

"Chris is one of the pre-eminent leaders in the UK pensions industry and is known around the world for his expertise on pension governance. He is also a really nice person and will be a great colleague to add to the Avida team.”

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