Speakers R-S

Ian Richards

Non-executive Chairman
Next Pension Trustees

Chairman
IMSDG and Independent Pension Advisor

Ian retired from Legal & General Investment Management in July where he was Head of DC Strategy. While at LGIM he was responsible for driving forward LGIM’s Straight Through Processing initiative and helped to establish the Via Nova protocol as the pensions industry standard.

He has over 40 years experience in both retail and institutional pensions and investment markets although in recent years he has focussed particularly on DC and governance.

Yusuf Samad

Investment Principal
Aon Consulting

Yusuf is an investment principal at Aon Consulting, with over 30 years experience in financial markets. Prior to Aon he worked as an investment consultant at Hewitt, where he advised UK pension fund trustees and also specialised in hedge fund research.

He worked for 25 years with Citibank as an international banker and senior credit officer.
He has experience as a trustee to UK pension schemes and is also a member and secretary of the Marathon Club that promotes long-term investment.

Yusuf is an ex-Chairman of CFA UK and is a Fellow of the Society of Investment Professionals.

Gordon Sharp

Director, Pensions Tax & People Services
KPMG

Gordon qualified as an actuary in 1979, and is head of Technical Services in KPMG's Pensions practice. He has 30 years' experience in pensions and investment consulting, to a wide variety of clients. He is a past chairman of the Actuarial Profession's Pensions Board, and is currently Chairman of the Profession's Continuous Mortality Investigation.

Jonathan Stapleton

Editor
Professional Pensions

Jonathan is the editor of Professional Pensions. Prior to this, he was news editor of both Professional Pensions and Global Pensions. He has previously held the position of deputy editor, online editor and senior reporter on Professional Pensions and has been reporting on the UK occupational pensions market since the beginning of 2001. Jonathan has a degree in economics from the University of London.

Andy Reed

Director, Defined Benefit Solutions
Prudential

Andy has 5 years’ experience with Prudential, having successfully implemented significant pension vesting transactions currently worth over £500 million per annum. Andy is currently responsible for innovation within the Defined Benefit market, developing new routes to market. Andy led the transactions to secure £300m of pension liabilities from Goldman Sachs in July 2008 and the first £1 billion pensioner buy-in (with Cable and Wireless) in September 2008.

Andy is a qualified actuary with, over 20 years’ experience in the UK insurance industry. He previously held senior strategic, finance and actuarial roles at AMP (Pearl, NPI, LL, Hendersons) and Virgin Money.

Colin Robertson

Global Head of Asset Allocation
Hewitt Associates

Colin is Global Head of Asset Allocation at Hewitt and heads up the Asset Allocation Team based in London and Chicago. The team provides a Medium Term Asset Allocation service which seeks to add to investment performance through taking medium term asset allocation views and advises on the timing of strategic change. The team is additionally responsible for the long term investment assumptions used in investment and actuarial modelling. Colin is a member of the Global Investment Committee.

Colin has been Head of Asset Allocation at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, Head of Strategy at Threadneedle Investments and Chief Investment Manager at a Life Office. He has a BSc (1st Class Honours) from the University of St Andrews and a Masters from UC Berkeley where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He is a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries.

David Saunders

Partner
Sacker & Partners

David has been a partner at Sackers since 2008, advising trustees and employers on a full range of pension law issues. David played a key role in working with the trustees of the Sea Containers 1983 Pension Scheme to secure the first ever Financial Support Direction from the Pensions Regulator. His recent work has included advising clients on conflicts of interest, the legal aspects of scheme funding and the Regulator's clearance procedures.

David frequently advises on the pensions aspects of corporate acquisitions, disposals and reorganisations and is a member of the team that provides transactional support services to other law firms.

Kevin Shilling

Managing Director
SHILLING Communication

Like most people in the industry, Kevin started his career in pensions almost by accident. A young, cheeky graphic designer, he told MPA (now Mercer) that they needed his help to make pensions more interesting. They agreed, and Kevin was appointed to ‘liven up pension communication’.
20 years later, and following a spell as Head of Communication at Watson Wyatt, Kevin made the decision to start his own company where he could offer tailored creative and strategic communication services under one roof.
In the last ten years, his Company has gone from strength to strength and is currently providing communication support to an extensive client base, including BT, BAE Systems and Royal Mail.
Kevin is still cheeky and still ‘livening up pension communication’.

Robin Simmons

Partner
Sacker & Partners

Robin has been a partner at Sackers since 2008. His recent focus has been on advising both employers and trustees on managing defined benefit liabilities, whether through scheme closures, cessation of accrual or benefit design changes. He also advises on corporate mergers and acquisitions, notably advising the trustees of the Boots Pension Scheme in its deal with the KKR-led private equity consortium's acquisition of Alliance Boots plc.

Robin is a firm advocate of good governance and works towards advising all clients on the steps to take to ensure sound decision-making. He has presented several times this year on the topic for Sackers' clients, focusing on the need for trustees to understand whether their governance structure works for them. Robin plays an active role within the pensions industry, and is a member of the advisory panel to the trustee education award-winning "Pensions Intelligence” seminar series.

Fraser Smart

Director, Northern Region
Principal & Senior Consulting Actuary

Buck Consultants

Fraser has 18 years’ experience advising clients on employee benefits. He qualified as an actuary in 1999 and has a wide range of knowledge in his field. Fraser is Scheme Actuary to a small number of our key clients and is known for giving clear, pragmatic advice. He recently served on the Faculty of Actuaries Council for three years. He is also a key member of the team developing Buck’s thinking on actuarial issues. Fraser developed FundTracker and the Online Information Library [E-View] solutions for Buck. In recent years, Fraser has been a lead examiner for the actuarial profession and a regular presenter on professionalism courses for newly qualified actuaries.

Sarah Smart

Chair of Trustees
Macmillan Cancer Support Pension Scheme

Independent consultant
SmartCats Consulting

Sarah has extensive experience acting as a trustee for a variety of defined benefit pension schemes, ranging in size from £5m to over £3bn, including several appointments as Chairperson. Sarah’s background as a Chartered Accountant with over 10 years experience in the investment management industry provides a core set of skills with which to approach the complex issues facing pension scheme trustees today. Her fresh and enthusiastic approach to trusteeship focuses on helping the trustee body as a whole to perform well as a cohesive unit.

Bill Smith

Senior Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer (UK)
Lazard Asset Management Limited, London

Bill is Chief Executive of Lazard Asset Management Limited and is a member
of the Oversight Committee that oversees the investment product platform
worldwide. He began working in the investment field in 1979.

Prior to joining Lazard in 2002, he was Head of European Equities and Global Head of Research at ABN AMRO. Bill previously held a number of senior positions at Barclays Bank, including Head of Savings and Investment, Deputy Chairman of Barclays Asset Management and Head of Research at BZW.

He qualified as a Fellow of the Faculty of Actuaries whilst at Standard Life and holds a BSc (Hons) in Pure Mathematics from Heriot Watt University. Bill is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and is a member of the Board of the Investment Management Association.

Gary Smith

Senior Consultant
Watson Wyatt Worldwide

Gary Smith is a senior member of Watson Wyatt's DC consulting team and a member of the firm's European DC Management Group. Gary's particular responsibilities include the coordination of DC thought-leadership and development of the firm’s DC services across Europe, as well as advising a portfolio of DC clients.

Gary is also chairman of the Watson Wyatt Pension Research Forum and a frequent conference speaker and press commentator.

Fraser Sparks

Partner
Hammonds

Fraser joined Hammonds in 1998 as a trainee solicitor, and is now a partner in our Pensions practice based in our London office.

Fraser advises trustees of a wide range of occupational pension schemes on all aspects of pensions law although he has particular experience of advising clients in relation to investment and funding issues, including issues relating to common investment funds and alternative funding solutions involving contingent assets. Fraser is a member of the Association of Pension Lawyers and sits on the Association's international sub-committee. Fraser has co-authored a chapter of a book published by Sweet & Maxwell on investment management issues for occupational pension schemes. He has also written articles for various pensions publications and has been quoted in the pensions press on topical issues.

Paul Sturgess

Product Development Director
Capita Hartshead

Paul has over 28 years’ experience working in pensions. Following the sale of FPS to Capita Hartshead in 2005 he joined the Board of Capita Hartshead where he has responsibility for New Product Development and business improvement across the range of Administration, Consultancy and Actuarial services provided by Capita Hartshead.

During his time with Capita Hartshead he has been involved with the creation of its new online web portal; Income Drawdown service; annuity team; investment consultancy businesses and formulation of the full services proposition