NEST Appoints New CEO | Chief Investment Officer

Helen Dean, NESTThe UK’s National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) has promoted Helen Dean to CEO, succeeding Tim Jones later this year.

Dean is currently executive director for product and marketing at NEST, having joined from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in 2014. While at the DWP, she worked on the initial concept behind NEST and automatic enrolment.

Jones quit as CEO in February to take on a role in the digital payments sector, but has stayed with the group to oversee the transition.

“The next few years are going to be critical ones in terms of ensuring auto-enrolment goes smoothly for small and micro businesses,” said Otto Thoresen, chair of NEST. “Helen’s frontline experience of the challenges we face will be invaluable in helping NEST to navigate that journey.”

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NEST was established in 2008 to run defined contribution (DC) pensions for UK workers who are unable to access workplace pensions. The next two years will see millions of employees of small and micro businesses become members of the fund. It is set to become one of the biggest DC pension funds in Europe.

NEST’s investments are overseen by CIO Mark Fawcett, who collected the award for the best DC fund at last month’s CIO Europe Innovation Awards.

Susan Martin, LPFA Susan Martin, CEO, LPFATwo of the UK’s biggest public pensions have formally agreed to collaborate in a £10 billion asset-liability management partnership.

Following board meetings yesterday, the Lancashire County Pension Fund and the London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA) have approved the plans that were initially outlined early in December 2014. Susan Martin, CEO of the LPFA, said the arrangement could save the pensions more than £32 million in costs over the next five years, as well as reducing deficits.

“Both the LPFA Board and the [Lancashire] committee have considered detailed proposals and have agreed that such a partnership would prove beneficial to both organisations,” added Lancashire Director George Graham.

“The partnership will build on the existing expertise across all locations and increase co-operation and collaboration across all aspects of the pension funds, under a strong governance framework,” Graham said. “We aim to provide industry-leading standards of administration and so provide our members and employers with efficient and cost-effective services.”

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The new entity, provisionally named the Lancashire and London Pensions Partnership (LLPP), will be responsible for investment management and administration of the two pension funds. Together the partnership will serve an estimated 500,000 members and 1,000 employers, roughly 10% of the entire UK local authority pension system, Martin said.

Following the board approval, the pensions will submit applications and a five-year business plan to the UK’s regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, to establish the asset holding and management entities. They will also establish a six-person board for the project, including a representative from each pension and four independent non-executive directors. The provisional launch date for the LLPP has been set at April 1, 2016.

Other local government pensions have already approached the LPFA and Lancashire to enquire about the partnership, but both Graham and Martin emphasised that further collaboration was a long way off.

“It will be difficult enough to get this off the ground with two pensions,” Graham told CIO. “But the design is such that others can join once it is set up.”

“There are a number of collaborative efforts that have been tried and not worked for some reason,” Martin added. “This partnership provides everything a pension needs, but we are very aware that it is right for our needs. There will be opportunities for others to engage when it is up and running.”

Both pensions were nominated for an Innovation Award at CIO Europe’s awards ceremony in London last month.