PASA | assess | aspire | achieve

Margaret Snowdon, OBE

Lucida

Role at PASA:

The Chairman

Margaret is Operations Director at Lucida. Before that she was a Partner with Towers Perrin as its European Head of HR and Pensions Technology Consulting. Previously she was a Partner with Mercer and has advised many large pension funds on administration and operational strategy as well as managing several significant transition programmes.

She is a Fellow and former Vice President of the Pensions Management Institute. She is also a Fellow and immediate past Chairman of the Pensions Advisory Service, a role she undertook to introduce a programme of change to refocus TPAS as a key provider of pension information and support to the public for the next decade. She continues to work with TPAS as a volunteer adviser and Regional Organiser for London advisers.

Margaret serves on the FRC Actuarial User Group, helping to improve standards in actuarial services. Working with ABI and industry colleagues, she has developed a guide to good practice on buyouts for trustees. She is a founder Director of the Centre for Retirement Reform.

Margaret was appointed an OBE in the 2010 New Year’s Honours list for services to pensioners and was recently named as one the 50 most influential people in pensions.

Karen MacKenzie

KPMG

Role at PASA:

Honorary Secretary

Karen MacKenzie has been treasurer of RSPA since 2008 and a director since 2009. Karen has now stepped down as a director and has been officially appointed as Company Secretary and Treasurer.

Karen is an audit director at KPMG and specialises in the audit of pension schemes. She is a member of the Pensions Research Accountants Group, lectures for the NAPF and is a regular speaker at the ICAEW Pensions Conference.

Mark Adamson

JLT

Mark has been dedicated to the enhancement of quality in pension scheme administration for over 20 years and was an active supporter of RSPA, the fore-runner of PASA, from its foundation.

The early part of his 35 years in the financial sector was in life and pensions administration before moving in to senior roles in Human Resources with Prudential and Crown Life of Canada, where he began to broaden his experience into wider responsibilities in the pensions arena.

As Operations Director he contributed substantially to the transition of MNPA throughout the 1990s from an in-house administration unit into a leading niche provider of pensions administration, before moving on to become Managing Director at Edis Partnerships and then HS Admin.

Mark joined Jardine Lloyd Thompson in 2009 where he is responsible for managing a number of key clients as well as being involved in business development and marketing. He is a regular contributor to the pensions press and has spoken at many pensions conferences.

In his spare time he runs the website for the legendary Liverpool art-rock band Deaf School (take a look at deafschoolmusic.com!) and is a life-long, and therefore frustrated, supporter of Newcastle United (much of the frustration stemming from the fact that he was born at the end of the decade in which they regularly won the FA Cup, a success they haven't achieved since…).

Mark is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a Master of Arts in Human Resource Management.

Phil Bradish

The Pensions Trust

I have been employed at The Pensions Trust as Head of Pensions Operations since July 2005. As a member of the Senior Management Team at the Trust, I am responsible for a team of over 100 staff with responsibility for the management of the Trust’s administration service. This involves all aspects of scheme administration including data management; collection of contributions; benefit calculations; communication to members regarding their benefits and employers of scheme level issues. My team also completes all bulk processes, such as the production of annual benefit statements, application of pension increases and the compilation of valuation data.

In addition to this, I am also responsible for the development and maintenance of all software applications: both ‘off the shelf’ packages, such as the core administration system, and applications developed in-house as well as the introduction eBusiness technology.

Before joining the Trust I had already gained 25 years' pensions experience. Three years working for a Third Party Administrator as their Senior Pensions Consultant managing various in-house teams, and Client Relationship Manager / Secretary to the Trustees for 12 pension schemes. Nine years as Assistant Pensions Manager for Northern Foods plc and for fifteen years an Actuarial Officer for General Accident Life in a variety of pensions management, actuarial and development roles.

I am committed to improving administration standards across the industry and have been an active member of the PASA Working Group, Governance and Standards committees to set up and develop the profile of the new Association. I am delighted to be part of the new PASA Board that will seek to improve administration standards across the industry.

John Broker

ITM

John has been involved in pension administration for over 30 years. His first position was in the Army (Pensions Office) and subsequent roles include managing the in house scheme of the Medical Research Council and senior positions with Bacon & Woodrow, Aon, JLT and Capita.

John is now a Director of ITM, the independent data and systems specialist.

John qualified as APMI in 1994 and became FPMI in 2009. He is a regular speaker at pensions events and the author of many thought leading articles in the pensions press.

John’s specialist areas are pensions, data and systems. Much of his work is spent advising Trustees on compliance with Regulator standards and ensuring their data and systems strategy is aligned with future scheme strategy.

Unconstrained by convention, John has a passion to improve administration standards for all and believes strongly that PASA can achieve this.

Fergus Clarke

Aon Hewitt

Fergus Clarke has over 30 years' experience in the pensions administration market.

Having started my career as an administrator I have retained a close connection to how pension schemes are administered and developed an understanding of what really matters to members of schemes as well as the teams of administrators who are charged with delivering the services. I have a particular passion around how scheme members can be best served which has been a cornerstone throughout my career. I regularly work with clients to ensure that administration services are designed to meet their needs and the needs of their members. My roles in the last 20 years have all been client facing and I use these connections to continue to drive for innovation and development of services to scheme members. It is this experience and cultural belief that I bring to the Board of PASA.

Sara Cook

Mercer

Sara started working in the pensions industry in 1987. She became a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute (PMI) in 2002 and was elected to the PMI Council in 2008. Sara has been a PMI Eastern Region committee member since 1998, of which she is the immediate past regional chairperson.

Sara joined Mercer in 2008 as a Client Relationship Manager within the outsourced administration team. Her role is principally focussed on providing clients and colleagues with guidance on the administrative implications of legislative, market and best practice changes. Sara is also an active conference speaker and media spokesperson for Mercer.

Prior to joining Mercer, Sara spent four years as the UK Group Pensions Manager for a large multinational company where she had overall responsibility for the four pension schemes provided by the company at its three UK locations.

Peter Dyer

Hymans Robertson

I manage the Third Party Administration practice in Hymans Robertson LLP and have held this position since 2008. I joined Hymans Robertson in 2001 as an Interim Manager but was pleased to accept a permanent role as Practice Director (which later was re-titled Operations Director).

I am not a technical pensions expert, but I have worked in the financial services industry for 37 years. During that time, including 26 years at Prudential prior to 2001, I have had responsibility for providing administration services on several types of pensions arrangements, including personal pensions, GPPs and many types of occupational schemes. My “skill set” is general management and I am a member of the Chartered Management Institute. In my role, I have P&L responsibility for the administration area of Hymans Robertson, promoting continuous improvement in all we do, including the quality of our service, and responding to the changes our industry faces. 

Kim Gubler

Kim Gubler Consulting

Kim Gubler is a business graduate, holds a Diploma in Business Excellence and is a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute. Having worked in the pensions industry for more than 20 years, she specialises in pension administration and governance of both DB and DC arrangements. Since 2002 she has run a successful independent pension and management consultancy.

Kim has worked on developing DB and DC policy and procedures across a range of employers, trustees and providers. She is practiced at running scheme administration audits and governance reviews. Kim has also worked with a number of pension administration firms to develop their business strategies, definitive objectives and market position.

Kim is a Director of PASA – the successor to RSPA, which she joined in 2005. She chairs the Standards sub-committee, which currently includes the development of the General Statement of Administration Standards (GSAS). She has worked closely with the previous and current Chairs of PASA in the evolution of PASA from RSPA. Kim worked with the Regulator to develop the Record Keeping Guidance and was successful heading the TPR Administration & Governance Services framework tender. She is an adviser and London Regional Organiser for the Pensions Advisory Service as well as a Principal Examiner for PMI.

She is regularly called on to speak at industry conferences. In 2009 the firm began producing the industry’s only Administration Fee survey followed in 2010 by an Actuarial Fee survey. 

Sarah Holdstock

Xafinity Paymaster

Sarah is the Service Planning and Development Director at Xafinity Paymaster.

Sarah has a wealth of experience and a proven track record in pensions, starting from her employment as a pensions administrator in the early 1980s, to working with schemes and employers to translate strategic aims into effective operational solutions.

Sarah's detailed understanding of pension arrangements has enabled the delivery of solutions which meet the distinct objectives of each scheme, engaging across Xafinity's client base of 2.9 million members, in both the public and private sector. As a Member Nominated Trustee, Sarah has an in-depth knowledge of member needs and combines this with a good understanding of administration systems and processes. Sarah is passionate about delivering high standards of service, and proactively seeking out quality improvements. It is for this reason that she joined the PASA working group in the summer of 2010, and is an active member of the Standards sub-committee.

Jane Murray

Towers Watson

Jane is a Director of the Technology and Administration line of business at Towers Watson where her responsibilities span both client and operations management.

She began her career in the in-house pensions department at British Airways in the early ‘90s, moving to Towers Watson in 1996. Since then Jane has held a number of leadership roles. She has particular expertise in DC administration, having developed Towers Watson’s DC administration offering.

Jane is passionate about the way in which pension benefits are delivered and communicated to members. She views high quality pension administration as the key to a successful member experience.

Jane has a degree in Economics from Heriot-Watt University and is a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute.

John Simmonds

CEM Benchmarking

John is an MBA and FPMI with 25 years in the pensions industry.

His career began in pension administration within an insurer. He has also worked in an in-house team and in a TPA. John has gone on to sell, implement, manage and advise on DB and DC pension administration working for organisations like Hogg Robinson and Deloitte (where he completed a three year secondment to work in the Australian market).

In recent years John established and now leads CEM Benchmarking's business in the UK, producing detailed comparisons of some of the largest and best know pension schemes - domestically and internationally. CEM's work and unique database provide John with a deep understanding of how the world's best managed pension funds operate and serve their members.

Debra Soper

Pearson

Debra is currently working at Pearson PLC (owners of FT, Penguin books etc). She has 25 years' pensions experience and has worked in TPA, IFA and in-house.

She has come up through the ranks from pensions administrator and so has a vast amount of experience in the administration area.