Investment Council Chairman

Martin is the Director of Finance and Risk for the GSK UK Pension Schemes and Secretary to the Trustee for the GSK Common Investment Fund.  The UK pension schemes have combined assets of £7bn and a total membership of 82,000. Martin is a UK Chartered Accountant. His role covers risk management, vendor management, trustee financial reporting, tax and regulatory compliance.  Martin is actively involved in a number of industry initiatives including the NAPF working group on the revision of IAS19 and the ICAEW AAF01/06 Committee. He is Chairman of the T-Charter.

Martin is a regular speaker at industry events on topics such as defined contribution provision and custody.

Vice Chairman

Mike J O'Brien, Managing Director,  is the global head of J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s Institutional Client Group, based in London. An employee since 2010, he is responsible for overseeing the firm's institutional client business and is a member of the JPMorgan Chase & Co. Executive Committee and the Asset Management Division Operating Committee.

Previously he worked at BlackRock where he was head of Institutional Business for Europe, the Middle East & Africa. During his decade-long tenure at BlackRock, he led a team of institutional client advisors responsible for some of the firm's largest clients located across 12 regional markets. Prior to that, Mike worked at Towers Perrin for 14 years where he oversaw their UK and European investment consulting practice, managing all aspects of pension planning financial management, and developing new products and service offerings, such as pension financial risk modelling for UK and US corporations.

Mike holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Limerick University in Ireland. He is an Actuary (FIA) and a CFA Charterholder.  

Sally is CEO of BP Pension Trustees Ltd and has the delegated authority to direct and oversee the running of the BP Pension Fund. Her role includes advising the Trustee Board on the Fund's strategy, executing its investment and administration policies and setting and monitoring performance targets. Her responsibilities require her to draw on her extensive pensions and investment knowledge gained during a twenty-year career with benefits consultancy Aon Hewitt.

Sally graduated from Imperial College, London in 1986 with a first class degree in mathematics and qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1989.

Co-optee

Robert joined Watson Wyatt (now Towers Watson) in 2002 having spent 18 years in the asset management industry. Robert is a senior investment consultant and chairman of Towers Watson Global Investment Committee, the group responsible for all the firm’s capital market assumptions and views. He also advises a small number of our largest clients and as such has a particular understanding of issues facing such schemes. Before joining Towers Watson, Robert spent seven years at First Quadrant where he was involved in managing equity market neutral and GTAA strategies and latterly headed its European operations. Prior to that he spent eleven years at NatWest Investment Management (now Gartmore) where he was a director in charge of their structured equities group.

Robert is a graduate of the University of London and holds BSc and MSc degrees in economics. He is a member of the Securities Institute and an Affiliate Member of the Institute of Actuaries.

Following an investment management career that started in 1978, Andrew has worked as the in-house Pension Investment Manager for the John Lewis Partnership since 2003. He is responsible for overall investment strategy and the performance of 26 external fund managers across all asset classes.

Andrew is a member of the Investment Advisory Committees at both Coller Capital and Pantheon Ventures, and sits on the Advisory Board for the Pension Fund Investment Forum.He is also a member of the General council for BUNAC. Andrew holds both a BA and an MPhil in Economic & Social History.

Mark Fawcett is Chief Investment Officer at NEST Corporation.

Mark has been an investment manager for the last 24 years and managed money at a variety of institutions. At Gartmore Mark was head of Japanese equities while at American Express Asset Management International, he was Chief Investment Officer.

Before joining PADA (now NEST Corporation), Mark was a Partner at the boutique investment manager Thames River Capital LLP.

Co-optee

Roger Gray has been Chief Investment Officer at Universities Superannuation Scheme since September 2009.

From 2006, he was CIO at Hermes Fund Managers; from 2002, an independent institutional adviser; from 1997, CEO/CIO at UBS Asset Management Switzerland and then global Head of Asset Allocation and Currency for UBS Brinson/UBS Global Asset Management. From 1983, he was a manager and then head of Fixed Income and Currency at Rothschild Asset Management, where he rose to Chief Investment Officer and Head of Institutional Business.

He studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford and then Economics at Harvard, where he was a teaching fellow for International Trade and Finance and for Commodity and Securities Markets.

Co-optee

Mark joined Pension Corporation in 2007 as co-head of the Asset Liability team which has responsibility for hedging the insurer’s liabilities and managing its assets. He has experience as a trustee and was chairman of the Asset Liability committee of the Thorn pension scheme

Mark has over 20 years experience managing a wide range of bond funds both for pension and retail clients.
Prior to joining Pension Corporation he spent 8 years at Morley and 7 years at Gartmore, where he was Head of Credit and was responsible for developing Gartmore’s credit process for funds investing in sterling corporate bonds and high yield. Mark previously worked in corporate bond sales and corporate finance at BZW.
Mark has an MBA from Cranfield School of Management.

Mark Hyde Harrison is Chairman of the NAPF.  He has served on the NAPF Investment Council since 2006 and joined the NAPF Board in 2009.

He lives in Kent with his wife and three daughters.

Andrew leads the European Investment Consulting business. He is a director of Mercer Limited and a member of the Global Leadership Team. He remains extensively involved in advising clients and also participates in the manager research program.

Andrew has nearly 20 years of experience in the investment business. Before joining Mercer in 1998, he worked as an investment analyst with Sedgwick Noble Lowndes, where he provided investment advice and managed the consulting team and its investment research process.

Andrew has a bachelor’s degree in industrial economics from Nottingham University.

Nigel is CEO of BT Pension Scheme Management Ltd, the executive company for the BT Pension Scheme.  He first joined Hermes in 2004 and was Head of Alternatives and Strategy before building the executive arm of the BT Pension Scheme within Hermes Pension Fund Management.  Primary activities include Investment Strategy, Risk Budgeting and Management, Asset Liability modelling, Scheme Rebalancing, Tactical Asset Allocation and Advisory work to the Trustees of BTPS.

In earlier roles he has had responsibility for Alternative Asset Management including Hedge Funds, Commodities and Emerging Strategies, whilst at Hermes.

Previously he has worked at UBS and Rabobank Investment Banks setting up and running the commodity derivative capabilities globally. He also has worked at ING and Barings, being part of the four man team to integrate the Corporate and Investment Banking capabilities after the ING purchase of Barings.

He has run and owned commodity trading, processing and broking companies, the last of which in his capacity as CEO, he concluded successful company sales of the group to Salomon Bros, Man Group and ADM. His first role in commodities was at Mars Confectionery which he joined from University after completing his Engineering Degree. His business experience has covered procurement, risk, trading, processing, broking and derivative investments over a period of more than 20 years.

Co-optee

Nicola began her career in London with the Civil Service and spent ten years as a consultant in the private sector before returning to her home county to work for Norfolk County Council in 1996. She took over as Head of the Norfolk Pension Fund in 2002. The Norfolk Fund has won a number of awards including Public Sector Scheme of the Year in 2007. Nicola believes this is due to the holistic approach of the fund and its trustees to both investment and scheme administration. 
Nicola is a member of  the NAPF Local Authority steering group and contributes to many other national and Government bodies in the pensions world

Joyce is Head of Investment Implementation & Change at RPMI Railpen. She joined RPMI Railpen in 2002 and manages the team responsible for managing pooled funds and client portfolio management including investment manager transitions, securities lending, and associated analysis functions. She also manages the change function within RPMI Railpen London responsible for project work to improve the running and functionality of the investment team in London. Prior to joining RPMI Railpen, Joyce worked as an investment manager, and as a management consultant.

Joyce is a member of the NAPF Investment Council, chairs the UK Investment Performance Committee (UKIPC) and represents the NAPF on the Securities Lending and Repo Committee. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI).

Vice Chairman, Local Groups Liaison Committee

David is the Deputy Chairman of David MacBrayne Limited, the Government-owned Company which provides ferry services to Scotland's islands and remote peninsulas. He is also Chair of the Audit Committee, and Chair of the Calmac Pension Fund Trustees. He is a former Non-Executive Director of Historic Scotland and is currently the independent Chair of Historic Scotland's Audit Committee

David is a qualified accountant and has spent most of his career in the private sector. From 1982-2002, he was the Finance Director and Company Secretary of Grampian Holdings. p.l.c. a leading Scottish-based public limited company. David is a former Chairman of the Group of Scottish Finance Directors and a former Chair of the London Stock Exchange, Scottish Council.

Heath Mottram is head of the UK & Ireland Fiduciary Management team of Russell Investments.  He is responsible for the delivery of tailored fiduciary management solutions to defined benefit pension schemes, combining investment management and liability management within a comprehensive governance framework.

Heath joined Russell in 2011 from the Royal Mail Pension Plan where he worked for 6 years as Head of Investment and Funding, responsible for developing strategy, making recommendations and implementing decisions relating to all investment and funding matters.

Prior to joining Royal Mail, Heath was a Partner at Watson Wyatt, responsible for managing and advising some of the firm’s most significant corporate and trustee client accounts and before that he was a consultant at LCP.

Details coming soon...

Alick is a Senior Adviser with AllenbridgeEPIC Investment Advisors and is currently investment adviser to two private sector pension schemes and has worked with a variety of public and private sector pension funds since joining Allenbridge in December 2008. Prior to joining Allenbridge, he was Director of Investments at the Merchant Navy Officers Pension Fund from which he retired in Sept 2008. Prior to MNOPF, Alick ran his consulting business between 1998 and 2002, specialising in interim treasury management services and before this was Treasurer (EMEA), with Nortel Networks (UK) Limited for nearly fifteen years.

Alick was appointed a Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers in 1991. Between 1985 and 1998 he was a trustee of several Nortel Pension Schemes and a trustee director of ICAN, the national charity for young people with speech and language handicaps between 1996 and 2001. He also sits on the T-Charter Steering Group and is a regular speaker on the pension fund circuit.

Sue Timbrell has over 25 years’ experience of running pension funds. Sue was previously Director of Pensions at Transport for London and Company Secretary to the TfL Trustee Company, where she worked for five years before joining LawDeb Pension Trustees in 2007. At TfL, Sue advised on pensions policy and managed all aspects of the £5billion Transport for London Pension Fund.

Sue deputises for Mark Ashworth in the running of LawDeb Pension Trustees’ business. Sue is a member of the NAPF's Investment Council and Chair of its Property Committee. She has been Chair of the NAPF’s Shareholder Affairs Committee and a member of the NAPF’s Performance Monitoring Group. Until recently, Sue was Vice Chair of CIPFA’s Pensions Panel.

Mike became Head of Investments at DMGT Pensions in 2009 and has responsibility for investment strategy and the performance of the scheme’s broad range of external asset managers. For the previous 20 years Mike worked as an Investment Director in the City managing institutional equity portfolios at asset management firms such as Hermes and Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.

Mike holds an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and graduated from Cambridge University with an MA in Natural Sciences.