Home > News > Corporate Moves > Former National Grid Head Jumps to Railpen
Corporate Moves

Former National Grid Head Jumps to Railpen

Trustee chair John Chilman tapped to take on the pension’s investments in June after the former chief leaves for insurance giant.

By Chris Butera

John Chilman



After the pending departure of its chief executive officer, British railway company RPMI Railpen will replace him with the chairman of its board of trustees, who has previous experience as a utility official.

John Chilman will start running both the railroad company’s pension administration and its investment arm in June, leaving his job as National Grid’s group head of pensions. He has chaired the railway’s board since 2007, becoming trustee chair in 2014, according to his LinkedIn profile. The new head also held various director positions with Railpen since 2009.

Chilman will give up the Railpen chair in March, after CEO Phil Wilcock departs to head the UK division of insurance giant AIG. Wilcock became Raipen’s chief only last February and announced his departure for AIG last month.

Three of Railpen’s managing directors, David Maddison, Paul Sturgess, and Julian Cripps, will run the fund until Chilman’s June arrival as CEO, the business confirmed.

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Babloo Ramamurthy, Railpen’s chairman, said the incoming CEO’s previous experience with the firm and “innovative” pension reputation will be “invaluable” to the firm.

Chilman’s successors for his other roles have not been announced, but “the  Trustee has a robust succession plan in place, which is well underway,” a Railpen spokesperson said. 

Chilman is also one of the Nestlé UK pension fund’s two independent trustees.

National Grid could be reached for comment.

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Home > News > Market Moves > How the Government Shutdown Will Ding the Employment Report
Market Moves

How the Government Shutdown Will Ding the Employment Report

The 35-day closure will pump the jobless rate up to 4.1% for January, RSM’s Brusuelas says.

By Larry Light

The US has been riding a good-news tide of rising employment and dropping joblessness for some time. Thanks to the recent 35-day partial government shutdown, that’s about to be reversed, at least temporarily.

That’s the projection of RSM chief economist Joe Brusuelas, who expects the national unemployment rate to rise to 4.1% from 3.9% in December. When the Bureau of Labor Statistics issues its numbers on Friday, he wrote in a research report, that will mark the first net loss of jobs since September 2010, a full 99 months ago.

The 380,000 federal workers who didn’t report to work will be classified as unemployed during the month, but those who worked without pay, some 420,000, will be counted as employed, he wrote.

The last big shutdown, 21 days stretching from the end of 1995 to the start of 1996 resulted in only 13,000 lost jobs, by BLS calculations, he said.

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What about long-term harm to the economy? Not so much. “Our research at this time does not indicate permanent damage to the labor market,” Brusuelas indicated. But he tempered that assessment with a warning that government contactors who were cut loose may suffer a shakeout. Just how much will show up in later monthly job reports, he added. 

Average wages shouldn’t be hurt too much, he went on—up 3.2% from the year before, or 0.3% over the month. That’s in keeping with the three-month average of 3.3%.

Brusuelas cautioned that investors may overreact to the higher jobless rate. The greater truth, he contended, is “the underlying growth trend in the domestic labor market, which is still stout, albeit slowing.”

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