The Association of Professional Pension Trustees (APPT) has announced four new appointments, including appointing Rachel Croft as APPT chair.

Croft will succeed Harus Rai, who has led the association since 2021. Meanwhile, council member, Vassos Vassou, has been made APPT vice chair. Croft is a trustee director at Independence Governance Group and has over two decades of experience overseeing pension schemes. She has been on the APPT council since 2021 and focused on external affairs and furthering the role of professional trustees, having regular interaction with The Pensions Regulator and the Department for Work and Pensions. At the APPT’s annual general meeting two new members also joined the council: Tova Docherty from Capital Cranfield and James Rickards from Law Debenture.

LawDeb Pegasus has expanded its pensions team with three appointments of executives to its pensions executive services team.

The new appointments are Clementine Chapman, James Lavender and Danny Gaskell. Chapman joins the team as an associate pensions executive having worked at Hymans Robertson as a pensions administrator and at HCI as a operations administrator. Lavender joins as a senior pensions executive following six years at PwC where he was a senior manager in its pensions management consulting wing. His experience of working closely with trust-based arrangements and trustee boards motivated his move into the trustee sector. Meanwhile, Gaskell has more than 10 years’ experience in actuarial consultancy, focusing on advising trustees on DB funding strategy. He is joining as a pensions executive from Aon. Lavender and Chapman will join the London office, while Gaskell will be part of the Manchester office.

First Actuarial has appointed Gavin Thorn as financial wellbeing consultant.

With almost three decades’ industry experience, Thorn joined First Actuarial from Aon where he spent six years. He delivered financial wellbeing services to the employees of corporate clients, covering a range of personal finance themes. Prior to Aon, Thorn worked at Fidelus, in an employee benefits consultancy role which included delivering pension-themed financial education. He has also worked at Mercer and at Standard Life. First Actuarial head of financial wellbeing, Catherine Lockyer, acknowledged the “huge impact” of financial education and support on wellbeing. “At First Actuarial, we are building up our services and growing our team so we can meet even more of this demand.

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