She has a ten-year background working in pensions, initially as Pensions Manager and Scheme Secretary, and now also acts as a professional trustee across a number of schemes. As such, she has a strong focus on good governance and uses this as a method to reduce the operational risk of Trustee Boards.

With a keen eye for detail, Annabelle ensures any complex information is presented in a clear, concise and logical manner to help trustees when making decisions that impact their scheme and its members.

Annabelle seeks to build strong relationships with all stakeholders, including trustees, sponsoring employers and all third-party service providers, to ensure the timely provision of information and thereby facilitate effective and efficient decision-making by the Trustee Board.

Annabelle has experience in both defined benefit and defined contribution arrangements, and both single-employer and multi-employer arrangements. This includes the use of master trusts, where Annabelle has extensive knowledge of the DC master trust authorisation regime. Annabelle is PRINCE 2 qualified and uses this to oversee various projects including DC bulk transfers, DB buy-ins and other de-risking initiatives.

As part of her role as Head of PCST, Annabelle is responsible for ensuring IGG is at the forefront of innovation in this space. As part of this, she led the development of IGGnite, specifically created for smaller schemes.

Annabelle is an Associate of the Pensions Management Institute and fully-accredited as a professional trustee by the Association of Professional Pension Trustees.

Bill joined 3173 Limited (“The Group”) as Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) on 1 March 2024.
His role as CEO supports the continuing strong growth of the leading UK pension governance, advisory, investment and technology Group which includes the Dalriada Trustees, Spence & Partners and Mantle businesses.

Bill previously served as CEO of USS (the UK’s largest pension scheme) for over a decade. During his time as CEO, Bill built a high-performing executive team, and steered the scheme through very challenging circumstances. Under his charge, USS created significant value for members: introducing an innovative hybrid pension offering, building a sector-leading in-house investment team, and creating a pension administration function that receives excellent ratings for service levels and decision support. Prior to joining the USS, Bill spent almost five years at the Pensions Regulator, latterly as CEO, where he was responsible for the efficient regulation and supervision of the UK pension market notably during the launch and introduction of auto enrollment in 2012.

Bill is experienced operating at board level, with over 13 years as a CEO leading, structuring and changing complex organisations. He brings a facilitative but highly effective leadership style. He is skilled in grappling with challenging trade-offs, making decisions and delivering outcomes in complex public and private sector environments.

Bill is also a Council Member for the Institute for Fiscal Studies and a Governor of the Pensions Policy Institute. He has previously served on the Boards of the Pensions Advisory Service, The Solicitors Regulation Authority, and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority.

Barnaby has been working in pensions and investment for 15 years, starting as an investment consultant before switching to fiduciary management. Throughout his career he has advised pension scheme trustees and charities on all aspects of investment including journey planning, risk management, and end-game strategy. He currently manages portfolios for DB pension schemes with a range of long-term objectives.

Barnaby qualified as a Fellow of the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries in 2014 and holds masters degrees in finance and economics.

Claire is a partner and global pension funds practice head. She has more than 25 years’ experience of advising on pensions law, including pension scheme mergers, benefit change, equalisation issues, investment management matters, flexible benefit programmes, innovative funding solutions involving contingent assets and SLP structures, and liability management initiatives involving swap and insurance-based products (buy-ins and buy-outs). In the past few years, Claire has advised on buy-in /buy-out contracts covering in excess of £10 billion of liabilities.
Claire regularly speaks at industry events including the PLSA Annual Conference, and contributes to various publications, including the Firm’s Trustee Agenda. Claire has a portfolio of pension fund clients.

Dom leads the team in Legal & General’s Pension Risk Transfer business that is responsible for implementing buy-in and buyout transactions. He has responsibility for external relationships and the development of solutions for pension schemes of all sizes. In his time at Legal & General, Dom has led the implementation of some of L&G’s most innovative de-risking transactions. He has been at Legal & General for nine years and has 20 years’ experience across pensions consulting and life insurance. Dom is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Ellie has worked in the pensions industry for more than 30 years.  She is responsible for the strategic direction of the Cheviot Trust and is also a trustee.  An authorised DC Master Trust, Cheviot also runs a DB master trust under the same governance structure.  With a background in the legal sector, Ellie has a strong focus on governance issues.  She is passionate about clear, focussed and accessible communications across the board: from advisers and trustees to employers and members.

Fiona is Head of Policy at TPR, leading on changes to how TPR regulates areas such as value for money in DC schemes, funding for DB schemes and standards for trustees.   She has more than 20 years' experience in developing private pension standards and leading regulatory change.  She is passionate about delivering pragmatic solutions which both protect members and work for those implementing them.   

She has recently returned from a loan as a Deputy Director at DWP where she led on the government response to effect of gilt rises on pension schemes, and way to ensure that pensions schemes including defined benefit schemes invest more productively. 

Kate is an insurance specialist with extensive transactional and advisory experience in the sector, particularly in pensions de-risking. Kate’s clients include insurers, reinsurers, pension scheme trustees, sponsoring employers and banks. As well as having an outstanding record in pensions de-risking, Kate has worked on some of the most significant M&A transactions in the insurance sector in recent years.

Kate was seconded to the UK Financial Services Authority for a year, where she was part of a team advising policy makers on the UK implementation of Solvency II.

Kate is listed as Leading Individual by Legal 500 for Insurance Corporate and Regulatory 2024. Kate was awarded ‘Rising Star’ for Corporate at the Euromoney Women in Business Law Awards 2017.

Martyn has been involved and heavily focussed on the Pension Risk Transfer market since 2007. In that time, he has worked on the insurer side for around 4 years (gaining hugely valuable insights into the insurer processes, mindset and strategies), and has over 13 years of experience on the trustee advisory side.

Martyn has built and led Pension Risk Transfer teams in major Employee Benefit consultancies. He has personally led and advised on c50 transactions, covering schemes below £10m to schemes over £1bn in size, and has driven innovation in the Pension Risk Transfer marketplace, bringing a focus on pragmatic and holistic solutions whilst always maintaining a focus on key client and member outcomes required.

Neil is UK Head of Pensions. He advises a mixture of trustees and employers on their pension arrangements with a client base including some of the biggest funds in the UK. Recently, Neil has assisted clients with key strategic changes such as benefit reviews, contingent funding arrangements and closure of schemes to future accrual, as well as guiding them through the changing regulatory environment (including the increasing focus on ESG issues). He also has a great deal of experience in liability management, including advising in a number of the significant recent buy-in and longevity swap transactions.

Neil sits on the Legislative and Parliamentary Subcommittee of the Association of Pensions Lawyers and also served on the committee of the Society of Pension Consultants. He regularly speaks at industry conferences and training events.

Rachel joined Spence as a graduate over 10 years ago. She is a practising Scheme Actuary and qualified as a Fellow of the Institute & Faculty of Actuaries in 2018.

Rachel currently works as part of Spence’s Actuarial & Investment team based in Belfast. She has experience working for private pension schemes on regulatory tasks, as well as on tasks for the not-for-profit sector for a variety of organisations across the UK. Rachel also provides consultancy services across a range of clients in Northern Ireland, Scotland and England. She has experience in projects for the Pension Protection Fund following Spence & Partners’ appointment to the PPF’s actuarial and administration panel.

Rob joined the DB solutions team in 2014. He cares about finding the right solutions when trustees are preparing to buy-in or buyout. His team supports trustees and their administration partners from enquiry, through transaction and onwards to transition. He is a qualified life insurance actuary which helps ensure the right questions get asked to maximise value for trustees. Before joining Just, he spent 12 years at Aviva. He is a regular contributor to the pensions press.

Tom entered the pensions industry in 2001 and prior to joining Spence worked for a major employee benefits consultancy for over 13 years, leading teams focussing on pension projects for DB and DC schemes.

Tom is a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute, and a member of Spence’s senior leadership team. As well as leading Trustee services Tom manages Spence’s relationship with the Pension Protection Fund.