Home ListingSeptember 13, 2013

Mottram Quits USS after Eight Months

<em>A very short tenure as head of fixed income comes to an end at one of the UK’s largest pensions.</em>

Reported by Featured Author

(September 13, 2013) — Heath Mottram, an investment consultant-turned pension manager, has quit the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) just eight months after joining as its head of fixed income and liability management, aiCIO can reveal.

According to multiple sources—and an updated LinkedIn profile—Mottram left USS in July to join a subsidiary company owned by the UK’s ICI Pension as CEO. His new employer, Pensions Secretariat Services Limited, provides “all strategic support services to the fund”, according to the fund’s latest annual report.

Mottram had joined USS in December from Russell Investments where he had been head of fiduciary management in the UK. He held that role for just one year and two months.

He had maintained a longer tenure at his previous employer, as head of investment and funding at the Royal Mail Pension. Prior to Royal Mail he led a 20-year career in investment consulting.

USS is one of the UK’s largest pension funds, with almost £40 billion in assets. The fund won the category for asset allocation at aiCIO’s European Innovation Awards in May.

The fund became FSA-registered last year and has been appointing new members to its alternative investment capability. In March, the chief executive of the UK’s Pensions Regulator, Bill Galvin, announced he would join USS in August as its group CEO.

USS declined to comment.