Advisor, Gordian Advice

Nick is a sustainable investment strategist. He founded of Gordian Advice which helps UK Pension Funds integrate responsible investment into their investment strategies and portfolios. Gordian Advice currently works with a range of corporate DB, LGPS and DC clients who are responsible for £100 bn in assets. Nick is Chair of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) Sustainability Board and co-chair of the IFoA’s climate-related risks taskforce. He recently co-authored a paper on “Climate scenario analysis – An illustration of potential long-term economic & financial market impacts”, wrote the DCIF Good Citizen’s Guide to ESG , “Why we fiduciaries are failing younger members”, and “Are there alligators in your economic models?”. Nick is a founding member of Actuaries for Transformational Change, and co-authored their third bulletin “Uncertainty and Judgement”. Nick is a passionate believer on the importance of values & culture and an advocate for aligning the asset management industry with a broader societal purpose. He was Co-chair of Russell Investments’ EMEA Diversity & Inclusion committee & is an Ambassador for the Diversity Project.

Principal and Senior Investment Consultant, Barnett Waddingham

Pete has significant experience in providing investment advice to a wide range of both defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes. He believes in providing clients with advice which offers clear direction to assist in making a decision. Pete uses his experience to help trustees formulate their investment aims and beliefs. Using these he is experienced in designing and implementing structures which help trustees achieve desired investment returns in a capital efficient and risk controlled manner. Pete’s extensive experience, clear advice and proactive approach have helped him to become a trusted consultant to a wide range of businesses.

Head of DC Investment, Hymans Robertson

Callum joined Hymans Robertson in 2015 and is responsible for DC Master Trust and single-employer clients and has been actively involved in driving the firm’s approach to tackling climate change and responsible investment. He recently co-founded an industry action group to encourage all pension providers to make a climate impact investment option available to all DC savers across the UK. Callum has 15 years’ experience in the pensions industry and is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Chris Yiannakou is Managing Director & Director of Institutional Services at Loomis Sayles Investments Limited (LSI), Loomis Sayles’ London-based entity, covering Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He is responsible for overseeing institutional client development and servicing for the UK, Continental Europe, Middle East and North Africa regions, as well as overseeing activities with global and regional investment consultants. Chris joined Loomis Sayles in 2012 from UBS Global Asset Management, where he was Head of European Consultant Relations. Prior to UBS, he was responsible for institutional consultant and client relationships with Pioneer Investments and Gartmore Investment Management respectively. Chris earned a BA from Bournemouth University and also holds the Investment Management Certificate from the CFA Society of the UK.

I use my global leadership and investment experience to build high performing teams and solutions. An experienced executive leader and investment professional, I have enjoyed leadership and investment success in the UK and Canada. I moved back to the UK in 2021 to work with UK investors and to grow Aon’s investment business. I’ve enjoyed a number of leadership roles, most recently as Head of Investment for Canada / CEO Aon Investments Canada where I was responsible for our delegated investment solution (OCIO) and investment consulting solutions. I work with institutional investors to meet their investment objectives and manage risk to their organisations.

PARTNER, Macfarlanes

Lora advises clients on the structuring and operation of onshore and offshore investment funds, both regulated and unregulated, and also advises on all legal aspects of asset management. She specialises in regulated funds.

Her clients include operators, asset managers, depositaries and custodians of investment funds. Advice is wide ranging and incorporates restructurings and reorganisations, outsourcing and hosting arrangements, investment management agreements, depositary agreements and platform and distribution arrangements.

In addition she regularly assists clients with related EU and UK regulatory and compliance matters. She has particular experience in advising on the UCITS regime, AIFMD, MiFID and ESG developments.

Lora is an active participant in Investment Association initiatives and is currently advising the FCA and IA on the proposed Long Term Asset Fund. She is also on the Alternative Investment Management Association working groups in relation to UCITS, AIFMD and Liquid Alternatives and is on the IBA’s Investment Funds Committee.

Lora is ranked as a leading individual in the retail funds space by a leading legal directory, The UK Legal 500, and is listed in The Lawyers Hot 100 2020.

Trustee Executive, BESTrustees

Jenny Davidson joined BESTrustees in 2020, having enjoyed a 37-year career working in Pensions and HR culminating with 13 years as Group Reward Director for a number of companies in the IT, Telecoms and retail sectors. She has worked alongside Board Directors and Remuneration Committees of FTSE100 and FTSE250 companies to set their reward strategies, including benefits, pensions and wellbeing offerings.

Jenny has experience as an employer nominated trustee on two large DB/DC hybrid pension schemes, so is familiar with the challenges of balancing the needs of the trustee board from the business, and resolving any conflicts of interest that arise. She also spent part of her career as a self-employed pensions consultant to several trustee boards advising on the implications of new legislation, and at the same time she acted as secretary to the trustees for a scheme where the sponsoring employer was subject to a private equity take-over.

She has experience of closing DB schemes, outsourcing administration, auto-enrolment application, the appointment of new professional advisers, as well as routine projects such as actuarial valuations, covenant reviews and investment strategy.

Matt is a Senior Investment Research Specialist for Mercer’s global investments business. Located in Bristol, UK, he is responsible for preparing white papers and other materials on a broad range of investment issues, and has roles relating to portfolio construction and solutions whilst also specialising in researching alternative asset classes and thematic investment opportunities.

Before working as a researcher, Matt had 10 years of experience working as a field consultant in Mercer’s investment advisory business. Matt is responsible for shaping Mercer’s headline annual investment outlook piece, the Themes and Opportunities, and has in the past written central advice on cryptoassets, ETFs, gold and commodities in general.

Matt graduated from Exeter university in September 2003 with a master’s degree in Bioinformatics and is also the holder of an Honours degree in Biological Sciences, having graduated from St Catherine’s College, Oxford in 2002.

Outside work
Outside of work Matt participates in a book club, enjoys walking, and is a festival-going film buff

Matt Gibson is a Partner at LCP, and is Head of Manager Research. Matt Joined in LCP in 2015, and has 25 years’ experience analysing and selecting investment managers across all asset classes. He is responsible for LCP’s manager research and delivering clear advice to LCP’s clients on their investment management arrangements. Matt has a master’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge.

Rona is a Partner and Senior DC Consultant at Hymans Robertson and is well-known in the pensions industry. Rona won Adviser of the Year at the inaugural Women in Pensions Awards in 2018 and in 2020 was awarded Role Model of the Year. In 2021, she won the Women in Pensions Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rona works with some of Hymans Robertson’s larger trust-based DC clients, as well as a range of company governance committees for contract-based and master trust arrangements. She has a real passion for improving DC member outcomes. She chaired the Governance Committee of Hymans Robertson’s own staff pension plan for 5 years until 2021 and sat on the AIMSE Council for around 10 years until late 2020. She currently sits on the investment committee of Hymans Robertson Investment Services.

Rona is a regular contributor to the pensions press, pensions blogger and presenter at DC related conferences. She engages actively with The Pensions Regulator and the DWP on topical DC issues and is currently Chair of the Working Party on the Security of DC Assets. She also sits on the newly formed industry-wide DC Governance Group. She’s known for her sometime unconventional thinking, such as the Pensions Sea Shanty she wrote during lockdown!

Arif Saad, CFA, is Co-Head of Investment Strategy, responsible for leading Kempen UK’s investment proposition. This includes designing and developing strategic and tactical asset allocation strategies for our UK clients, including use of liability hedging, alternatives and research of innovative asset classes.

Prior to joining Kempen in 2020, Arif was a Fiduciary Manager at Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), and one of the architects of their fiduciary management offering. Prior to this, Arif was head of the Strategic Client Relationship Executive team at LGIM, working with their largest and most sophisticated UK pension funds clients, focusing on risk management and derivative strategies. Arif began his career within Mercer’s UK investment consulting business, where he advised a portfolio of defined benefit and defined contribution pension schemes, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds on the full spectrum of investment issues, including investment strategy, manager and mandate structure, manager selection, transitions and performance analysis.

Arif graduated from the University of Warwick with a BSc (Hons) in Industrial Economics. He is a CFA Charterholder and in 2021, Financial News named him a Rising Star in Asset Management.

Henry is a Director in the GB Client Team at WTW. Henry joined the firm in 2010 and works with a number of our largest clients in the UK, Middle East and Europe. Henry has experience on a wide range of issues including strategic asset allocation design, portfolio construction and investment manager selection.

Henry works with a range of institutional clients including foundations, charities, family offices, and DB and DC pension funds including LifeSight, the WTW master trust. Henry serves as a member of the Investment Committee to a large European foundation and has served as a member of the Management Committee for the investment advisory business at WTW.

Henry graduated from the University of St Andrews with an MA (Hons) in Economics and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and the UK Investment Management Certificate (IMC).