Nike Trost
Head of Department, Buy-Side Market Analysis & Policy, FCA
Nike Trost heads the Buyside Market Analysis & Policy and Pensions Policy department. As Head of Department Nike is responsible for delivering the FCA’s strategy in relation to the asset management sector, policy approach to FCA regulated pensions, as well as the supervision of Custody Banks and bank-owned asset managers
Nike has 17 years regulatory experience gained from working across the FCA, including in heading the asset management supervision, capital market policy roles, oversight of primary capital markets transactions and heading the FCA’s prospectus approval function.
Louise Davey
Head of Policy (interim), The Pensions Regulator
Louise Davey is the interim Head of Policy in TPR’s Regulatory Policy Directorate, leading the team responsible for developing regulatory policy that delivers across TPR’s strategic priorities and encompasses DB, DC and public service schemes. Louise joined the Regulator in 2007 and has worked in both policy and operational teams. Before joining the Regulator, Louise held technical roles in the pensions industry ranging across personal and occupational pensions, third party pension administration, and TPAS (The Pensions Advisory Service).
Zoe Alexander
Director of Strategy and Corporate Affairs, NEST
Zoe is NEST’s Director of Strategy and Corporate Affairs, with a role spanning long term organisational strategy, public affairs and stakeholder management. Before joining NEST, Zoe was a civil servant for over a decade, in a variety of roles. She was Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions during the passage of the legislation that established automatic enrolment; wrote the funding strategy that helped set up Nest; and led the Treasury programme that set up the national pensions guidance service, Pension Wise. Zoe chairs PLSA’s Master Trust Committee, and is a non-executive director and trustee of the homelessness charity, Emmaus SLC.
Mark Austin
Chair, Northern Trust UK Pension Scheme
Mark is the head of the UK in the institutional investor business in the UK looking after principally pensions and insurance clients. Marks background is based in the servicing, management and stewardship of retirement assets having worked at an asset manager with a significant pension market share and two asset servicing institutions predominately servicing the UK and European defined benefit and defined contribution markets. Mark is also the executive sponsor on new sales to major or strategically important asset owners and managers in both the pension sector, and the insurance market as well. Mark has been with Northern Trust for 16 years. In these roles Mark spends a significant amount of time working with clients and consultants helping support the more complex aspects of pensions including the movement of asset management in house and de-risking and other deficit reduction structures as well as implementing the various pension pooling structures available. Prior to Northern Trust mark was at JP Morgan covering the pension client base as well as the offshore manager constituency in various capacities from strategy to sales and relationship management. Mark Joined JP Morgan from Henderson Investors where he held various positions. Mark is a director of Northern Trusts Irish Management Company and is Chair of the Northern Trust UK Pension Plan covering both the DC and DB section.
Tom Barton
Partner, Pinsent Masons
Tom leads the award winning defined contribution practice for Pinsent Masons, which has over £300bn under advice across insurers, master trusts and other big schemes. Areas of specialism include Auto-Enrolment and the Charges & Governance regime which together provide the backdrop for Value for Money
Fred Berry
Senior Adviser, The Pensions Regulator
Fred is Senior Adviser at the Pensions Regulator. He joined TPR in 2014 to establish the investment consulting team. Fred acts an adviser within TPR on pension scheme investments, provides specialist input to TPR’s regulatory policy and publications, and speaks regularly at industry conferences. Prior to joining TPR, Fred worked for a number of leading consultancies providing investment advice to pension schemes.
Billy Burrows
Founder, The Retirement Planning Project
William (Billy) Burrows, is a well-known and respected financial adviser specialising in annuities and pension drawdown.
He is a regulated financial adviser with Eadon & Co and runs the popular website www.williamburrows.com which publishes lots of useful information about annuities and drawdown including the latest annuity tables and annuity rate charts.
William has published a number of acclaimed guides including: 'Retirement is a journey not an event' and ‘Retirement Advice; an art or a science?’
He is a regular commentator on retirement income issues and is frequently quoted in the national media.
Des Healy
ESG, Productive Finance and VFM Policy Manager, Private Pensions Policy, DWP
Des joined the Civil Service and DWP in 2001 and for the past year he has been the DWP policy manager with responsibly for Productive Finance, Value for Money and ESG measures. Prior to this Des was the policy manager responsible for developing a new legislative and authorisation framework for DB Superfunds. Des also led the former DB pension contracting out, GMP equalisation and multi-employer policy teams. Des joined the Private Pension team in 2016 after spending the previous 5 years working as the Departments Appeals policy lead and working on developing wider welfare reform policy measures.
Alastair Reed
Principal Policy Adviser, Money, Which?
Alastair manages a team of public policy advisers working across personal finance to tackle consumer harm by making life simpler, fairer and safer for everyone. He represents UK consumers with policymakers and industry, including as a member of advisory groups for the Financial Conduct Authority, the Financial Ombudsman Service and the Pensions Dashboards Programme. Alastair is also a trustee for Which?’s two pension schemes. Before joining Which?, he held policy roles with a professional body, a think tank and in the UK parliament.
Kate Smith
Head of Public Affairs, Aegon
Kate is Head of Head of Public Affairs at Aegon, with over 30 years of experience in the pensions industry. Kate is a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute and Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute. Kate’s focus is on the ever-changing pension environment and the evolving shape of the workplace pensions market. Kate’s mission is to seek to achieve good outcomes for savers, promote the value of saving and highlight the importance of regulated professional advice to help people achieve a lifetime of financial security. Kate is a frequent commentator in the financial and consumer press and broadcast. Kate is the ‘Pensions Doctor’ for the Daily Telegraph online. She’s twice winner of the Woman in Financial Advice awards (2018 and 2019). in 2021 Kate was recognised as a role model for Women in Banking & Finance (WIBF) for her work in highlighting the gender pension gap. She was also shortlisted for Professional Pensions Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022.
Laura Stewart-Smith
Head of Client Engagement, Aviva
Currently working for Aviva, Laura is diploma qualified in financial planning and has spent the last 17 years working in workplace benefits. Specialising in working with employers, trustees and advisers to support and develop strong employee engagement strategies using a variety of different mediums.
Phil Warner
Head of Regulatory Development and Policy, Hargreaves Lansdown
Phil Warner APFS, Head of Regulatory Development and Policy, Hargreaves Lansdown
Phil has worked for over 20 years helping to make policies and legislation work so people are empowered to invest and save with confidence. He specialises in technical research, government and industry engagement, legislative interpretation and implementation. Initiatives include Pensions Simplification, Automatic Enrolment, Pensions Freedoms, Lifetime ISA, RPI reform, DWP Pension Scam Legislation, and changes to Normal Minimum Pension Age.
Jonathan Watts-Lay
Director, WEALTH at work
Jonathan is one of the original founders of WEALTH at work - a leading financial wellbeing and retirement specialist. He has spent many years working with companies across the UK to help their employees improve their financial future through the provision of financial education, guidance and regulated financial advice. In recent years this service has extended to the Trustee market, supporting pension schemes to help their members understand their financial situation, particularly with regards to pensions and how to optimise income in retirement. Jonathan is also a recognised commentator on a range of financial matters from how to help employees make the most of their pay and benefits, or the best ways to support them plan for their retirement by understanding the risks and complex decisions to be made. He is often quoted in the national and trade press and frequently speaks at conferences and roundtable events.
Renny Biggins
Head of Retirement, TISA
Renny has been at TISA for over 5 years and is the Head of Retirement. He has been in the industry for over 30 years and has held various management and senior management positions at organisations ranging from a large mutual life and pensions company, a bespoke SIPP provider, an IFA and a platform technology provider. Qualifications wise he holds the CII accreditations of Certificate in Life and Pensions, Certificate in Financial Planning and Diploma in Financial Planning
