Mark is a Partner with wide pensions law experience. He works closely with trustees and sponsoring companies on all aspects of scheme governance and administration, and on matters such as changes to benefits, scheme restructuring, trustee governance, complex investment arrangements and covenant and funding negotiations. Mark has developed particular expertise in the area of mastertrusts and in the field of pension scheme investment.

He is a key member of our Pensions Investment team, recently helping one scheme with over £4bn assets through various changes to its investment arrangements.  This included adopting a range of pooled fund structures, segregated mandates and complex derivatives documents. Mark has a close interest in investment governance for defined benefit schemes, and has run well-received training sessions for trustees in this area. Mark is a regular press contributor on pensions issues and speaks at events run by various industry bodies.  He is a committee member of the Pensions Management Institute's Trustee Group.

Mark Thompson has over thirty years' experience in pension fund investment. His current roles include being a member of the Zurich Independence Governance Committee; Executive Chair of the UBS UK Pension Scheme's Investment Committee and a member of both the Investment & Funding Committee and DC Committee for the Lloyd's Banking Group Pensions Trust. Previous roles include the Chief Investment Officer of HSBC Bank Pension Trust (UK) Limited, a hybrid scheme comprising of DB and DC sections, and a number of senior investment roles at Prudential/M&G. Mark was also a Trustee of the Prudential's UK Pension Scheme.  Mark has a Masters' Degree in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Lesley joined KGC in 2012. Previously, Lesley gained significant insight into the market from a provider view in the areas of pensions systems, services and investment management. This holistic understanding covers both trust and contract-based arrangements. She has a deep knowledge of the construction of products and services, including pricing mechanism and infrastructure.

Lesley is the current PMI President; prior to this, she was Vice President of the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) serving on the advisory council and its Board. Lesley has recently taken on chairing the Policy & Public Affairs Committee. As previous Chair of the PMI's Qualification and Examination Committee, Lesley has championed the introduction of Defined Contribution content and drove through the highly successful Certificate in Auto-Enrolment. As a DC specialist, Lesley has been involved in consultations with The Pensions Regulator, The Department of Work and Pensions and represented the PMI in discussions with the Office of Fair Trading on charges. She is regularly called upon to speak or to chair industry events.

Lesley holds a Masters in Economic and Social History and is also a Chartered Marketeer. When not working, Lesley likes to spend time with her two dogs and developing her baking skills, although bread still remains a challenge.

Laura Andrikopoulos is a partner and leads governance consulting for Hymans Robertson across DB and DC schemes. She is a qualified actuary and holds the PMI Award in Pension Trusteeship and Certificate in DC Governance. She is also a member of the IFoA Council, Lifelong learning Board, Pensions Board and Climate-Related Risks Taskforce. In 2018 she was shortlisted at the inaugural women in pensions awards and in 2019 won the Actuarial Post’s ‘Pensions Actuary of the Year’.

Paul is a Managing Associate in our pensions practice, assisting in the provision of day-to-day advice to both trustee and employer clients. He has experience of incentive exercises, scheme mergers, the drafting of scheme documentation, member communications and pensions investment de-risking work (including acting in relation to the largest buy-in deal at the time). Paul also has expertise in pension scheme investments, having advised in relation to various fund structures and investment management agreements, including work in relation to ISDAs and GMRAs. In addition, Paul is part of our dedicated DC group and has advised extensively on the requirements following the introduction of Pension Freedoms. More recently in the DC space, Paul has been a lead in advising a number of clients on both the Trustee and provider side, in relation to the Master Trust authorisation and supervisory regime.

Paul leads the Proposition team for Mercer UK Wealth.  Paul’s 5 years with Mercer adds to the previous 22 years in pensions and benefits.  Member first is at the heart of everything Paul and his team develop for our clients.  Or the team, member first means getting personal!

Alan Pickering is a President of BESTrustees and a Trustee of a number of pension schemes. These include The Plumbing Industry Pension Scheme which he chairs and the People’s Pension.

Alan chairs the governance group of the Royal Mail Statutory Pension Scheme. He was a Trustee of the Kosovo Pensions Savings Trust between 2011 and 2015. Until February 2013, he chaired the financial literacy charity, Life Academy. He has served as a non-executive director of The Pensions Regulator having previously been a member of the Occupational Pensions Board.

Alan is a past Chairman of the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), now known as the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) and the European Federation for Retirement Provision (EFRP). His Government-sponsored report “ASimpler Way to Better Pensions” was published in July 2002. He is a member of the Rules Committee of the BritishHorseracing Authority and Vice President of the Racehorse Owners Association.

Jo leads Nest Insight’s research programme. She has over 15 years’ experience in social and commercial research across the public, private and third sectors and has led innovation work addressing a range of future opportunities and challenges in personal finance, pensions and beyond.

Dr Christopher Sier is the Fintech Envoy for England for the UK HM Treasury and Chairman of Fintech North, the innovation community for the North of England. He also Chaired the UK Financial Conduct Authority's panel investigating costs, fees and transparency in institutional investment, wrote the LGPS cost transparency standard and has worked with the World Bank, EIOPA, the Committee on Workers Capital and institutional investors around the world on the same subject. Combining these two worlds he is Chairman of ClearGlass, a technology platform that sits between asset managers and pension funds and operates a near-zero price model for the collection and analysis of pension fund cost data. ClearGlass is based in London, but also operates in Bangalore where the CTO and Dev team, currently of 8 but growing, are based. In addition, Chris is Visiting Professor of Financial Technology at the University of Leeds, Professor of Practice and Newcastle University, and in the distant past he was a police officer in Edinburgh

Tim Phillips is Vice President of the Pensions Management Institute, as well as Director of Global Clients at the Fintech company Smart Pension.

Tim works with Smart's platform clients to deliver digital platforms, in order to drive innovation and efficient operations in the running of DC Master Trusts.  He has worked in the pensions industry for 16 years, including in the DC Master Trust space for the past six years.  

He is currently responsible for Smart's Middle East business and is also a Non-Executive Director of the Pensions Management Institute.  

Anish is part of the Atlas Executive team and is Head of Clients, Proposition and Strategy. He is a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute and has over 22 years’ experience of providing pension and employee benefit consultancy advice. Anish has advised many large trustee and corporate clients on the issues faced by both defined contribution and defined benefit pension schemes and has been involved in developing Master Trusts since 2012.

Graham is an experienced master trust leader, developing proposition, improving operational efficiencies, delivering robust governance and new business. A specialist in workplace savings and an ardent supporter of driving digital transformation, simplifying communications and unlocking value for consumers.

As Senior Investment Strategist at State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), Maiyuresh’s role involves developing SSGA’s European DC investment proposition, supporting the firm’s existing client base with their investment strategies and promoting SSGA’s DC products and solutions to pension scheme trustees, plan sponsors and consultants. He is also a regular speaker at industry conferences and a press spokesperson for SSGA on European DC and investment issues.

Maiyuresh joined SSGA from Mercer where he was responsible for new business development in the south of the UK for Mercer’s flagship DC pensions solution, Mercer Workplace Savings. Prior to this, he was responsible for the development and delivery of the solution’s investment proposition. Maiyuresh has over fifteen years’ experience in DC business, investment and proposition development, and before that he worked as an investment consultant, advising institutional investors on a range of issues, including investment strategy, portfolio structure and manager selection.

Maiyuresh holds a BSc in Economics with Actuarial Studies and is a Chartered Financial Analyst
(CFA) charter holder.

Helen is a partner at Sackers advising trustees, employers and providers on all aspects of pensions law. She has a particular interest in new legislation, regulatory and policy development. As head of Defined Contribution, she has been involved in some of the most innovative work completed by the firm over the last few years.

Helen acts for a number of master trusts and is an expert on their particular design and governance issues. She monitors developments in defined contribution matters closely and liaises directly with TPR and the DWP on areas of concern to our clients, such as the master trust supervision regime and how it will work in practice.

Louise Sivyer is a policy manager in TPR’s Regulatory Policy Directorate. Louise joined the Regulator in 2007, and has worked in both policy and operational teams, across issues relating to both DB and DC.

Louise manages the team responsible for developing policy relating to the Governance and Administration of trust-based pension schemes. This includes the ‘21st Century Trustee’ initiative and the regulation of DC schemes. She previously led on the development of the (2016) DC Code of Practice.

Before joining the Regulator, Louise spent 12 years working in the pensions industry in technical roles ranging across the pension mis-selling review, third party pension administration, and TPAS (The Pensions Advisory Service).

Stuart is responsible for the on-boarding of new corporate pension customers and the long-term relationship management of Legal & General’s corporate pension customers. Stuart is chair of Legal & General’s Mastertrust Employer Group and DC User Group. Stuart has been with Legal & General for 14 years and during that time has held a number of key project and relationship director roles with responsibility for customers such as Barclays, Asda and AstraZeneca. Prior to joining Legal & General, Stuart held a number of positions with Royal London in both the individual product channel and latterly corporate pensions. Stuart holds the FPC Diploma in Financial Services and is PRINCE2 qualified.

Roger Breeden is a Partner at Mercer and Chair of the Mercer Master Trust Strategist committee. He is a Mercer veteran with more than 28 years at the company with experience in Personal Financial Planning, DC Pensions and Financial Wellbeing. He led the team that established the Mercer Master Trust in 2014. Prior to that he led teams in Personal Financial Planning and Mercer Workplace Savings combining proposition development with client development and delivery.

Paul Day is the Network Volunteer Manager at The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO). 

TPO currently has a network of 200 volunteers. Paul is responsible for all strategic volunteer-related activity, including volunteer recruitment and support, to deliver a service in line with TPO’s Volunteer Strategy. 

Before joining TPO in 2018 Paul worked for The Pensions Advisory Services (TPAS) from 2016 as the Volunteer Manager responsible for managing its volunteer programme. 

Prior to working in a pension environment, Paul worked in the Civil Service for 17 years as a policy adviser. After leaving the Civil Service he set up his own management and training consultancy delivering positive action, equality and diversity, and soft skills training for individuals and organisations.

Tony Attubato is Head of Early Resolution at The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) and joined TPO in March 2018.

Tony manages TPO’s Early Resolution Service (ERS) which provides an informal and streamlined approach to dispute resolution. The Early Resolution Team (ERT) is made up of staff and around 200 volunteers who are all pension professionals with many years of pension experience.

Before joining TPO Tony was Head of Dispute Resolution at the Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS). Tony joined TPAS in April 2001, initially as a Technical Specialist before working in a number of different management roles. Tony started his pensions’ career at Legal & General and has more than 30 years’ experience in the pension industry. He is a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute.

Mark is responsible for building the product, engagement and supporting proposition strategy with employers, their intermediaries and members. This encompasses the end to end experience from joining the scheme through to a member taking their benefits.

The role includes product and proposition development, research, marketing, member engagement and implementing behavioural and evidence-based solutions.

Mark has nearly 30 years’ experience in workplace pensions and has worked for leading providers and consultancies during this time.

Caroline is a Senior Writer at Quietroom, a team of writers, trainers and strategists. Quietroom works with organisations that have tricky stories to tell, helping them talk in a way that’s clear, vivid and real. Clear so their story makes sense, vivid so their ideas come to life, and real so their message sticks. Caroline’s worked with financial services organisations, government departments, health insurers and hospitals.

She’s helped them use language in a way that connects with the reader, strengthens relationships, and helps people make smarter decisions about the things that matter to them. She’s also spent half of this year working at Make My Money Matter, a campaign calling for the trillions of pounds invested in our UK pensions to build a better world.

Helping millions enjoy a better retirement

At Nest, we are dedicated to achieving a better retirement outcome for our members. Designed to reduce complexity and foster member engagement, we are proud of the quality of our governance and world class investment strategy that aims to take long-term care of members’ money.

Our innovative and award-winning investment strategy is designed by our in-house team to pursue strong returns without taking undue risk. What’s more, we constantly listen to our customers and improve how our scheme is delivered to make sure it is as easy as possible to run.

www.nestpensions.org.uk

Mercer delivers advice and technology-driven
solutions that help organizations meet the health,wealth and career needs of a changing workforce.Mercer’s more than 23,000 employees are based in 44 countries and the firm operates in over 130countries.

Mercer is a wholly owned subsidiary ofMarsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE: MMC), theleading global professional services firm in the areas ofrisk, strategy and people. With 75,000 colleagues andannualized revenue approaching $17 billion through its market-leading companies including Marsh, GuyCarpenter and Oliver Wyman, Marsh & McLennan helpsclients navigate an increasingly dynamic and complexenvironment.

For more information, visit www.mercer.com. Follow Mercer on Twitter @Mercer.

We provide legal certainty in a changing world. Linklaters is a leading global law firm, supporting and investing in the future of our clients wherever they do business. We combine legal expertise with a collaborative and innovative approach to help clients navigate constantly evolving markets and regulatory environments, pursuing opportunities and managing risk worldwide.

Atlas is the Trustee-led Master Trust representing the considered choice for employers who want their people to have the financial futures they choose.  

Atlas’ core belief is that no member should be surprised by their outcome, giving people control over their financial future.  It gives them the reassurance that their best interests, and hard earned money are being looked after by a board of pro-active independent Trustees.  It has in excess of £1bn of assets under management and over 100,000 members.

The Pensions Ombudsman deals with complaints and disputes concerning the administration and management of occupational and personal pension schemes. We consider complaints about the Pension Protection Fund and some decisions made by the Financial Assistance Scheme. We deliver a fair, impartial and free service. We examine the facts in each case and have legal powers to make decisions that are final and enforceable in court, with no financial limit on the awards we make.

We are not a consumer champion or part of the pension profession and are independent of Government. We employ a highly-skilled workforce, dealing with approximately 1,300 complaints and 6,000 enquiries each year.

Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM) is one of Europe’s largest asset managers and a major global investor, with total assets under management of £1.2trillion*. We work with a wide range of global clients, including pension schemes, sovereign wealth funds, fund distributors, retail investors and direct investors. Throughout the past 50 years, we have built our business through understanding what matters most to our clients and transforming this insight into valuable, accessible investment products and solutions. We provide investment expertise across the full spectrum of asset classes including fixed income, equities,multi-asset, real assets and cash. Our capabilities range from index-tracking, active and exchange-traded strategies to liquidity management and liability-driven risk management solutions.
* Source: LGIM internal data as at 30 June 2020. The AUM disclosed aggregates the assets managed by LGIM in the UK, LGIMA in the US and LGIM Asia in Hong Kong. The AUMincludes the value of securities and derivatives positions.