Managing Pensions Reform Conference

Speakers include:

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Stephen Timms, Pensions Minister
Stephen Timms was appointed Minister of State for Pensions Reform following the General Election in May, taking over the role from Malcolm Wicks.

Prior to joining the DWP, Timms served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury, and since May 2002 worked at the Department of Trade & Industry first as Minister for e-Commerce and Competitiveness and then as Minister of State for Energy, e-Commerce and Postal Services. Previous Ministerial positions included Minister of State for School Standards at the Department for Education and Skills; Financial Secretary to the Treasury; Minister of State at the Department of Social Security and Parliamentary Under Secretary at the Department of Social Security.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Nigel Waterson, Shadow Pensions Minister
Nigel Waterson has been the Member of Parliament for Eastbourne since 1992; is Shadow Minister for Pensions; Conservative Spokesman for Older People; and is also a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee.

A Solicitor by profession, Waterson built up a successful practice in maritime law. He served for a time as a local councillor and is a former Chairman of the Bow Group. He was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Health in 1995. The following year he was made Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister. He was appointed as Opposition Whip in June 1997. In February 1999, Nigel was appointed Shadow Minister for Local Government and Housing. From September 2001 to July 2002 he served as Shadow Minister for Trade and Industry.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Alan Pickering, Partner, Watson Wyatt
Alan Pickering is a Partner with Watson Wyatt. He joined the company in 1992 having spent 20 years with the EETPU. He is Chairman of the Plumbing Industry Pension Scheme, a Trustee of the Pre-Retirement Association and has also been Chairman of the NAPF and the EFRP. In 2001, Alan was asked by Alistair Darling, then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, to lead a review into the possible simplification of the rules governing the operation of all forms of private pension provision. His report A Simpler Way to Better Pensions was published on 11 July 2002. In 2004, Alan was awarded a CBE for services to occupational pension schemes.

Lawrence Churchill, Chair, Pension Protection Fund
Before joining the Pension Protection Fund, Lawrence Churchill was Chief Executive of Zurich Financial Services, UK Irish and International Life from 2002-2004. Prior to this appointment he was Chairman and Managing Director of UNUM Ltd, the UK arm of UNUM Provident Inc, the world’s largest disability insurer. Between 1991 and 1998 he was working for NatWest Bank. He joined initially to set up NatWest Life Assurance Ltd and his responsibilities were expanded in 1995 by the addition of NatWest’s regulated sales force and its stockbroking and portfolio management business.

David Norgrove, Chair of the Pensions Regulator board
David Norgrove's career, spanning both the public and private sectors, began at the Treasury where he started as an economist. His time there included two years on secondment to the First National Bank of Chicago, and he was Private Secretary to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher from 1985 to 1988. He joined Marks & Spencer in 1988, holding various senior positions before being appointed to the board in 2000. Whilst at Marks & Spencer, he was chair of the pension fund trustees from 2000 until his retirement in 2004. In January 2005 he was appointed as the first chair of the Pensions Regulator

Zahir Fazal, Senior Partner, Horwath Clark Whitehill
Zahir Fazal is a Senior Partner in the firm and is head of the Pensions Group. His pension scheme clients include Woolwich, Citibank, Kvaerner, Land Rover, Pearsons and Bechtel. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountant's Sub-Committee on pension schemes and of the Pensions Research Accountants' Group (PRAG) working committee on members' communications and SORP revision.

Mark Adamson, Managing Director, HS Admin
Mark Adamson is Managing Director of HS Admin, the pensions administration outsourcing specialists. Mark has 25 years experience in the pensions market, predominantly in outsourcing and administration systems. He spent 10 years with another specialist outsourcing provider, MNPA, where he was Operations Director and joined HS from Edis Partnerships where he was a Partner. A well-known figure in the TPA market, Mark has chaired and spoken at many industry conferences as well as contributing regularly to the trade press. Mark is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and is a Master of Arts in Human Resource Management from the University of Leicester.

Anne-Marie Winton, Partner, Pinsent Masons
Anne-Marie is a Partner in the Pensions Group at Pinsent Masons. She is experienced in many aspects of pensions law and practice, including: commercial acquisitions, disposals and other transactions (UK and USA based); scheme mergers; winding up and insolvency-related pensions issues; benefit re-design; drafting and advisory work for companies and trustees; dispute resolution; trustee training member communications and independent trusteeship. Anne-Marie is a full member of the Association of Pension Lawyers and organises the APL's Summer Conference as part of the Education and Seminars Sub-Committee. Anne-Marie speaks on a variety of pensions issues at the National Association of Pension Funds, the Pensions Management Institute and the APL, as well as at seminars run for clients of the Pensions Group and commercial conferences.

Ian McQuade, Head of Pension Consulting, Dunnett Shaw
Ian McQuade is Head of Pension Consulting for Dunnett Shaw, the IT and management consultancy. Ian joined Dunnett Shaw in December 2001, having spent three years as Operations Director in Sheffield for a large third party administration company. Ian had previously spent 11 years working for a large insurance company in their corporate pension teams. An Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute, Ian has spent much of the past 17 years dealing with all aspects of defined contribution pension schemes. He is also involved in the Raising Standards of Pensions Administration initiative.

Mark Duke, Principal and leader of Towers Perrin’s corporate pensions services in the UK
Mark Duke joined Towers Perrin in 1986 and advises on all aspects of the design and management of pension arrangements. He has developed particular expertise in the way pension issues are handled when businesses or companies are bought and sold and the application of good governance practices to pension schemes. In addition, he is working with companies to help them integrate the management of their benefit plans with their overall management of business risk, in particular, focusing on the impact of the company pension plan on shareholder value. This is particularly relevant at a time when pension trustees and the regulator are demanding greater financial support from pension plan sponsors.

Geoff Brooks, senior manager, retirement businesses, HSBC
An insurance and pensions professional with over 20 years experience. Having started his career with NPI moving on to Standard Life, Friends Provident and HSBC. Experience of Advice ,Sales management , Training, Marketing, Product development, and Business Leadership. Currently working in a global strategy role with HSBC Insurance Holdings, with responsibility to ensure the organisation is preparing for the demographic changes occurring across many regions.

Alex Weiland, Director of Business Development (Pensions Services), Standard & Poor’s
Alex Weiland joined the pensions unit of Standard & Poor’s in May 2004 as head of business development for its newly established European pensions business. His early career covered sales management and technical support roles with several life companies and unit trust groups. He joined Gartmore in 1988 to develop and manage the Pooled Pensions business, and latterly he concentrated on the DC market and moved to Fidelity as head of sales, marketing and client service for their DC business. In 1999, he joined Schroders, where he held senior client director positions in both the UK and international institutional divisions and became a director of Schroder Investment Management. He subsequently joined First Quadrant Limited as director of European sales and marketing.

Ian Richards, head of client accounts team, Legal and General Investment Management
Ian is Head of Client Account Team where the Client Managers have responsibility principally for clients with defined contribution arrangements. In addition to managing a team Ian has personal responsibility for a small number of key clients. Ian joined LGIM in February 1996 as a Business Development Manager responsible for expanding the number of consultants and clients using Legal & General's active and index investment management services. He has over 25
years experience in retail and corporate pensions and investment markets. That experience was gained while he worked in the insurance and unit trust industries and at a merchant bank. His previous responsibilities have included the design and development of new pooled investment products in addition to researching and establishing new defined contribution pension arrangements.

Adam Stanley, Principal at Punter Southall
Adam Stanley graduated from Durham University in 1993, with a degree in Mathematics. He gained five years pensions consultancy experience Aon before joining Punter Southall in October 1999. Adam qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in June 2001. Adam became a Principal at Punter Southall in 2003.
Currently Adam provides actuarial support to a range of regular clients of varying size and benefit structure. Throughout his career he has been involved in all major aspects of pensions consultancy and actuarial work and in particular he has experience of managing the client/adviser interface.

CHAIR: Jeremy Ward, head of pensions marketing at Friends Provident
Jeremy Ward is responsible for all aspects of pensions marketing at Friends Provident, including strategy, product management, pricing, communication, systems development and external funds. He has been very closely involved with the development of the innovative 'New Generation Pensions' systems which introduced true straight-through processing to the group pensions market. In 2003, Jeremy directed the development and launch of FP’s Activ range of multi-manager funds. Previous roles include head of product management and head of strategic marketing.