Aviva has appointed Mark Thompson as chair of the UK Life and Pensions (UKLAP) Independent Governance Committee (IGC).

Thompson brings nearly four decades of experience in the UK pensions industry, having held several senior investment and governance roles, including serving as the HSBC UK Pension Scheme chief investment officer and in various trustee positions across both defined benefit and defined contribution pension arrangements. He also served on the Independent Governance Committees of Zurich and Scottish Widows and currently chairs the trustee boards of the Prudential Staff Pension Scheme and the M&G Staff Pension Scheme.

Cushon has appointed Rachel Brougham as a trustee to the Cushon Master Trust Board.

She is a professional trustee at BESTrustees and brings extensive experience across the pensions sector, with expertise in pension administration and member engagement. Before joining BESTrustees in 2014, she spent more than 25 years at Mercer, where she provided actuarial, benefit, governance and defined contribution (DC) consulting advice. Brougham joins Darren Agombar, Katie Blacklock, Roger Mattingly and Paul Watson on the CMT Board of Trustees.

Legal & General (L&G) has announced the appointment of Gary Smith to its Independent Governance Committee (IGC).

He succeeds Daniel Godfrey, who has served as a member of the committee since September 2017. Smith brings more than 35 years of experience across the pensions and investment industry. Throughout his career, he has held several senior leadership positions spanning pension providers, investment management and consultancy. His previous roles include Schroders head of defined contribution (DC), WTW head of DC investment, BlackRock co-head of DC and Atlas Master Trust chief executive officer. In addition to this, he currently holds a portfolio of non-executive positions, including trustee and chair of the Investment Committee at Now Pensions, alongside advisory roles with several scale-up businesses. In his new role, Smith will work alongside fellow committee members overseeing the interests of members and assets under administration.

Scott McNeill has been appointed as Scottish Friendly chief financial officer (CFO), subject to regulatory approval.

McNeill, who is currently chief actuary at Scottish Friendly, will succeed Alan Rankine, who has decided to step down from his role as CFO to pursue a new opportunity outside the organisation. Scott brings significant financial, actuarial and industry expertise to the role and has played a key part in supporting the firm’s strategic priorities, financial resilience and growth ambitions. He will assume responsibility for the finance function and will take up the position of an executive director of the Board. In addition, he will become CFO of the future merged organisation between Scottish Friendly and OneFamily, subject to receiving the necessary approvals. Rankine will remain with Scottish Friendly until early next year to support the proposed merger of Scottish Friendly and OneFamily and to ensure a smooth and orderly handover.

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