Diversity of thought means stronger outcomes: Why Mary Fafiolu joined TAP 

Turning a personal lesson into a purpose 

For Mary Fafiolu, joining the PMI's Trustee Accelerator Programme (TAP) was driven by a simple belief: more people need to understand the power of long-term financial planning.  

Today, Mary, 30, is an IT Sourcing Manager at Lloyds Banking Group, but her route into pensions began through her own personal finance journey.  

In her early twenties, pensions were not a priority and like so many other young adults, Mary focused instead on her immediate finances.  

But as her understanding of saving and investing developed, she began to see pensions differently. Retirement planning became part of a bigger picture, alongside budgeting, investing and building long-term financial security. Seeing the impact that a strong workplace pension could have on future outcomes proved to be a turning point.  

That experience has inspired a passion for helping others understand the choices available to them. "Knowledge is power," Mary says. "People can't make informed decisions if they don't know what their options are."  

Championing diversity beyond demographics 

While pensions first attracted Mary through her interest in financial wellbeing, it was TAP's commitment to diversity that made the programme particularly appealing.  

As co-chair of the Lloyds' Black Organisation for Leadership and Development (BOLD), Mary is a passionate advocate for greater representation. But she believes the pensions industry should think even more broadly about what diversity means.  

For Mary, from Bristol, the goal is not simply to bring together people from different backgrounds, but to ensure schemes benefit from genuinely different perspectives, experiences and ways of thinking. 

She points to the risk of groupthink when decision-makers have followed similar career paths or share the same assumptions. By contrast, diverse boards are more likely to challenge conventional thinking, ask different questions and ultimately make better decisions for members.  

"As someone who is passionate about diversity and inclusion, I was drawn to TAP's mission to bring new voices into pension scheme governance. People from different generations, professions and backgrounds see challenges differently, and that diversity of thought is essential if pension schemes are to make the best decisions for members." 

Building trustee-ready skills 

Through TAP, Mary hopes to deepen her pensions knowledge, become trustee-ready with a view to being a scheme trustee one day, and ultimately use what she learns to help others. Whether that means encouraging colleagues, friends or family members to engage more with their retirement planning, her ambition is to make pensions more accessible and better understood.  

And in the longer term, she hopes her trustee journey will help bring a broader range of voices into pension scheme governance, ensuring decisions are shaped by the people schemes exist to serve.  

"I'm going into TAP to learn," Mary says. "I want to absorb as much knowledge as I can, take that back into the communities I'm part of, and help other people have a voice in those conversations. For me, it's about learning, giving back, and helping more people understand the importance of pensions and long-term financial planning." 

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