Alex Oakley
Standard Life
- BPA Transaction Manager
Alex is a BPA Transaction Manager at Standard Life, managing the pricing and submission of bids for buy-ins, and then navigating execution. Alex has a particular focus on articulating Standard Life’s sustainability strategy for BPA clients. Previously, he was a pricing actuary, supporting a number of Standard Life’s biggest and most complex transactions. Prior to joining Standard Life in early 2021, he was a pensions risk transfer consultant at a leading EBC.
Andrew Reid
BlackRock
- Managing Director and Head, Defined Benefit Relationship Management
Andrew Reid, Managing Director, is Head of BlackRock's Defined Benefit Relationship Management Team. The RM team is responsible for understanding the objectives of our pension scheme clients and ensuring the firm delivers solutions to enable clients to meet those objectives. Mr. Reid has over three decades of experience working in UK pensions in global markets, asset management and pension consulting. In previous roles, Mr. Reid was Head of Corporate Consulting at Watson Wyatt (now WTW) and has held global leadership roles on a longevity structuring desk at Credit Suisse and a pensions sales desk at Deutsche Bank. He has held non-executive roles as chairman of a pension scheme’s investment committee and on a longevity swap platform. Most recently, Mr. Reid was the UK head of business development at Insight Investment. Mr. Reid is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. He holds an MA in Mathematics from the University of Oxford.
Andrew Dodd
TPR
- Head of Supervision (Interim)
Andrew Dodd, Interim Head of Supervision, TPR, will provide a high-level overview of the new DB Funding Code, outlining its key principles and what TPR is planning next. The session will explore what the changes mean for those submitting valuations and how TPR will regulate against the new code in a proportionate, risk-based way. The session will conclude with an opportunity to put your questions directly to Andrew.
Anish Rav
Capita Pension Solutions Ltd
- Director of Global Pensions Policy & Propositions
Anish is Director of Global Pensions Policy and Propositions at Capita Pension Solutions. He’s known as an influential voice across pensions, for both his thought leadership and innovative approach to addressing today's pensions issues. With nearly three decades of experience, he has held senior roles at leading firms including Mercer, PwC, Hymans Robertson, Barclays, and Smart. Anish has advised master trusts, trustees, and corporate clients on defined contribution and defined benefit schemes. A Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute, he also serves on the Advisory Council, shaping the future of pensions.
Bobby Riddaway
HS Trustees
- Managing Director and Professional Trustee
Bobby is Managing Director of HS Trustees and a Professional with over 30 years’ experience in pensions and investments. He is currently Chair of Trustees on the DB Scheme of a London based firm of Lawyers. He is also Chair of the recently launched Trustee Sustainability Working Group. He is a regular speaker on DB, DC and ESG/ Stewardship issues and is looking to assist both the industry and his Pension Schemes develop in these areas. He is also currently an asset owner member of the AIMSE Europe council and past Chair of the ACA Investment Committee.
During his career Bobby has worked with some of the largest and smallest pension schemes in the UK across all areas. He is an actuary by profession and has worked as both an Investment Consultant and a With-Profit Actuary.
Dr Tim Drye
Mortality Manifest
- Chief Data Officer
Tim is a major shareholder and has a PhD in theoretical statistical physics. He was also a research associate at the University of Cambridge and is recognised as a force in data science, data quality and statistical analysis which is confirmed by the Data IQ top 100. Tim is recognised as one of the most influential individuals in the country.
His knowledge and expertise has resulted in the development of all of MM.’s key range of products.
His responsibilities continue to include the development of all products, manage the delivery team and be responsible for all new client implementation.
In addition, his knowledge of client data and associated issues are second to none and he is a trusted advisor to all our key clients.
Lawrence Phillips
Schroders Solutions
- Senior Solutions Strategist
Lawrence is a Senior Solutions Strategist within our Client Solutions team. He has extensive experience of working with UK DB pension schemes providing advisory services and implementing solutions for clients covering investment strategy, risk management, solution design and Fiduciary Management. Lawrence also specialises in Endgame solutions.
Lawrence is also a member of the Liability Driven Investments specialist team and is leading the development of Schroders’ endgame proposition, including portfolio design across ‘buyout ready’, ‘low dependency’ and ‘run-on’ strategies.
Lawrence has over 16 years of experience in the pensions industry, covering traditional actuarial consulting, investment analytics and investment advisory services including Fiduciary Management.
He is a part qualified actuary and holds a BSc in Neuroscience and Physiology from the University of Bristol.
Richard Jones
Punter Southall
- Principal
Richard Jones is the Managing Director of Punter Southall Pensions Solutions. He is a qualified actuary with almost 25 years industry experience, including over a decade heading up Punter Southall’s specialist employer consulting division, prior to the sale of all the pension consulting businesses in 2018. His particular specialism is the interaction of employer covenant with funding and investment, helping schemes to understand and navigate to the best long-term outcome for their specific circumstances. He has led over 300 complex pension projects during his career.
Richard Smith
Richard is a career pensions professional, starting in 1987.
In 2020 he lead the UK Government’s development of data standards for pensions dashboards (originally published in December 2020). He then went on to support PASA and PLSA, as well as PensionFusion and Moneyhub, on the topic of pensions dashboards.
He is now also the Volunteer Chair of the (Pensions) Dashboard Operators Coalition.
Sam Drye
Mortality Manifest
- Managing Director
Sam is a principal shareholder of MM. and brings with him a range of data quality, leadership and commercial experience. Sam has worked with some of the world’s largest data and credit reference agencies. At Experian his responsibilities included sales leadership, customer management and business development.
He brings with him a rare skill of understanding customer requirements and provisioning critical solutions which enhance the profitability of clients.
His ambition is to develop the business into a trusted data partner in the financial industry.
Valeria Piani
Phoenix Group
- Head of Stewardship
Valeria Piani is Head of Stewardship at Phoenix Group. She joined the firm in September 2021 to lead the in-house stewardship team and collaborate with Phoenix’s Asset Management partners to influence ESG performance by investee companies. She has over 17 years of experience in the industry and has held a number of senior positions at different firms. She joined UBS Asset Management in 2017 as Strategic Engagement Lead responsible for the manager’s climate change engagement programme, stewardship reporting and integration research in the industrial sector. Prior to this, Valeria worked for nine years as Associate Director at the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) where she managed a team of 11 members responsible for coordinating investor collaborative engagement activities with companies on a range of ESG issues. When at the PRI, she supported over 30 investors coalitions involving more than 200 asset owners and investment managers. Topics included among others director nomination, gender diversity, emissions reduction and human rights. Her recent publications include reports on engaging on climate change and the added value of stewardship more broadly. Her research on the effectiveness of shareholders’ collaborative engagement activities with companies on ESG issues has been published by the Business & Society Journal and Emerald Group Publishing and was selected by the editors as an Outstanding Author Contribution in the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence. In addition to being a member of the CA100+ Global Steering Committee, Valeria is also a member of the IIGCC Advisory Group of Corporate Programme and the PRI Advisory Committee of Advance.