RegulationMay 7, 2019

CEO Resigns from £17 Billion UK Pension

Susan Martin steps down from LPP as Chris Rule named interim replacement.

Reported by Michael Katz

Susan Martin, chief executive of the £17 billion ($22.4 billion) Local Pensions Partnership (LPP), which manages the pensions of public sector workers in London, Lancashire, and Berkshire, has resigned after three years at the firm.

LPP is a local government pension services provider that was launched in 2016 by the London Pensions Fund Authority and Lancashire County Pension Fund. It provides pension administration services for more than 590,000 members from approximately 1,700 public and charity sector employers in 17 local government pension services provider, police, and firefighter pension plans.

“We’d like to thank Susan for her significant contribution to the establishment and success of LPP and wish her the very best for the future,” Michael O’Higgins, LPP chair, said in a release.

Chris Rule has been named interim CEO of LPP. He has been with the company since its inception and has led its investment activities as managing director and chief investment officer of LPP Investments Ltd., LPP’s regulated investment management subsidiary.

Rule is currently CIO of the London Pensions Fund Authority, a position he has held since October 2014. He was also head of alternatives at SEB Investment Management, and before that was CIO of SEB Alternative Solutions. He also spent five years at Key Asset Management as CIO and an investment director.

Martin’s resignation is the third change to LPP’s senior leadership team in less than a month. On April 9, Adrian Taylor was named LPP’s permanent chief financial officer, having been its interim CFO since November, and Joanne Darbyshire was appointed director of pension administration on April 16.

Prior to being named interim CFO, Taylor was interim finance director UK at Edmond de Rothschild. Previously, he had been a partner and finance director at investment house Killik & Co, and CFO at London-based asset management firm Sarasin & Partners.

Darbyshire has held several senior roles at the Co-operative Group including head of co-operative life planning, and head of commercial and strategy. She currently holds a non-executive trustee and director position at the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership, a charity that supports leaseholders.