Canada Life has announced the appointment of Kris Black as head of annuities and Alice Watson as head of home finance within its retirement business.

These newly created roles will see Black and Watson take responsibility for the end-to-end product and proposition life cycle and strategy for the annuities and home finance product lines, respectively. Before this appointment, Black held the position of head of commercial within retirement at Canada Life and led the pricing teams for both annuities and home finance. In his career, Black has held senior positions at Willis Towers Watson and Aviva. Meanwhile, Watson previously held the role of head of B2B marketing at Canada Life and has also held several roles within the home finance product line. Black’s appointment was effective from 1 March, while Watson will take up her new role upon her return from maternity leave at the end of the second quarter of 2026.

Broadstone has appointed Paul Noone as head of operations.

Noone is returning to Broadstone after spending nearly six years with the business between 2013 and 2019. In that time, he held the roles of director & head of trust-based pensions and chief operating officer. He has also previously worked at the Money and Pensions Service, where he held the position of head of onboarding for the Pensions Dashboard Programme and has also worked for Capita and Railpen. In his new role, Noone will focus on improving Broadstone’s operations and enhancing its administration capabilities for pension schemes as they manage transactions such as buy-ins, buyouts, and long-term run-off strategies.

Aptia has appointed Steph Gold as its UK pensions communications lead.

She joins Aptia after nearly two decades at Barnett Waddingham, where she was principal and head of DrumRoll, the firm’s communications consultancy. Prior to this, she held senior roles at Aon. Gold has extensive experience in pension and benefits communications, specialising in strategic member and employee engagement programmes across a wide range of organisations. In her new position, she will develop Aptia’s pensions communications proposition and be responsible for building a specialist communications team.

Aon has hired Sindhu Krishna as a partner and head of sustainability for investment consulting in the UK.

In her new role at Aon, Krishna will advise clients on sustainability, including investment strategy and implementation, fund manager selection and specific sustainability solutions. She joins Aon after spending 14 years at Standard Life, where she held the role of chief sustainable investment officer. Commenting on the appointment, Aon senior partner and UK head of investment, Maria Johannessen, said: “Sustainability is an increasingly critical area for our clients, so Sindhu Krishna’s leadership will help us to expand our capabilities and further accelerate our impact… Sindhu will bring this range of expertise to our clients in pensions, insurance and not-for-profit organisations, and I am sure she will make a significant impact in this ever more high-profile area.”

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