PROFESSIONAL TRUSTEE - Key Persons
Andy joined Capital Cranfield in 2017 after a career as an adviser to trustees and employers at Watson Wyatt, Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow and latterly as a partner at LCP.
Using his experience of over 30 years in consulting on both DC and DB pension arrangements and liaising with regulators throughout the pension and financial services industry, he is able to use his wide knowledge and understanding for the practical benefit of trustee boards. He has served on the PLSA DC Council since 2013.
Andy has a long and successful record of advising on regulatory, governance, change management, investment (particularly asset security), provider selection and communication issues. His work within industry committees and working groups has also given him experience of bringing together board members with disparate viewpoints and priorities. These allow him to add value both strategic decisions at board level and within more technically focussed sub-committees.
Bushra joined Capital Cranfield in July 2020 and has over 22 years' experience in the pensions industry.
Bushra has provided extensive trustee support services on a number of on-going sole trusteeships, including group life schemes and currently acts as secretary to the trustee for a number of schemes with assets ranging from low millions to over £1bn.
Bushra has supported trustees during scheme closures, buy-ins/buy-outs and wind-ups. She has reviewed and developed processes to ensure delivery of a robust governance framework, timely delivery of member communications and managed tender processes of the third-party advisers. Alongside her strong organisational and project management skills, Bushra effectively manages the co-ordination of advisers and builds strong relationships across all stakeholders.
Bushra is a Diploma Member of the Pensions Management Institute and has attained the Award in Pensions Trusteeship. She also the Secretary for the PMI Midlands Committee.
Outside of work, Bushra's hobbies and interests include films, learning chess, and countryside walks.
Christopher has worked with Capital Cranfield Trustees since 2011 and has extensive experience of advising pension scheme trustees and sponsoring employers.
His background is in corporate finance and he has over 30 years experience advising companies in the UK and overseas on mergers and acquisitions and fund raising. He spent a period on secondment at the Pensions Regulator where he was responsible for taking commercial decisions on clearance applications and funding issues. He was a Managing Director of Close Brothers Corporate Finance and Head of the Pensions Advisory Group advising on a range of issues including employer covenant reviews.
Christopher is chair or co-trustee for a number of pension schemes from £55m to £2.8bn in asset size. He is the Chair of the Operations and Governance Committee for one scheme. He has been trustee for several schemes where the employer has experienced financial difficulty in supporting the scheme including one which entered the PPF following the agreement of a Regulated Apportionment Arrangement.
He is fully accredited with the Association of Professional Pension Trustees. He is a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment and holds a B.Sc.in Economics and an MBA. Outside work he is keen on long-distance cycle riding. Furthest so far has been the 780 km Camino de Santiago.
Claire joined Capital Cranfield in 2023 as a Scheme Secretary, bringing a wealth of experience in both public and private sector schemes.
Claire, who is based in our Nottingham office, has supported Trustees by successfully project managing buy-ins/ buy outs, wind-ups, and scheme closures, while ensuring members received clear and concise communication throughout.
Claire joined us from Capita where she had been undertaking Secretarial work, with her experience also including providing key support to Trustees during a number of tendering exercises, gathering data and providing a statistical analysis on the Board's appetite to risk and opinions on current providers.
Outside of work, Claire enjoys Scuba diving, travel and home renovations - not many of our team boast a plastering course on their CV!
Geoff joined Capital Cranfield in 2013 after over 35 years in pensions consultancy both acting as a trustee and advising them on a wide range of schemes. In that time he was also a Board Director at a leading benefits consultancy.
He has undertaken many key projects including scheme closures, mergers, benefit changes, liability de-risking exercises and wind-ups. As well as his "hands-on" trustee involvement in dealing with the many challenges faced by pension schemes Geoff has also successfully led the essential teams of professionals that pensions schemes need not only to be compliant but also to successfully achieve their objectives. Geoff uses this practical experience of managing adviser support to get the best added value for each scheme.
Geoff specialises in supporting schemes with up to 5,000 members and with assets of up to £500m and is equally comfortable acting as the chair of a board of lay trustees, a co-trustee supporting the board or as a Sole Trustee. He adopts a practicable approach to each scheme and its challenges taking account of the often unique aspects of each situation to achieve the desired outcome in the most cost-effective way.
He is an Accredited Professional Trustee and a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute serving on the Council of the latter for five years. Away from pensions he likes to travel the world with his family and friends including following the England Cricket Team. In the winter he follows Ipswich Town up and down the country perhaps to less exotic and colder places.
Graeme joined us in 2020. He has over 10 years pension trustee experience as trustee chair, chair of investment committee and project director for review and implementation of administration systems.
In his role as Trustee and Chairman of the Church of Scotland Pension Schemes he enjoys the challenge of delivering good outcomes through a combination of improvement projects, resolving technical pension and investment issues, collaboration with others and simple & effective communication.
He was formerly Global Head of Rates at Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, which later became Aberdeen Asset Management then Aberdeen Standard Investments. In that role he was responsible for the management of assets for pension funds and corporate entities. This included helping trustees weigh strategic investment options.
Graeme studied at Heriot Watt University and is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, where he served as an examiner in their investment subjects. Away from pensions, Graeme is involved in a number of charity ventures and is a keen adult learner of the bagpipes.
James has worked with Capital Cranfield Trustees since 2011. He chairs a number of UK schemes and is sole trustee of others ranging in asset value from £2.5M to over £300M & including DB & DC sections.
Qualifying as a solicitor in 1989 James spent a large part of his career supporting U.K. & U.S. companies in their day to day operations. Preceded by nearly 5 years in the corporate department of Eversheds, James was company secretary & in house counsel of three U.K. LSE listed companies. He then went on to act as General Counsel (Europe) for a Fortune 100 U.S. NYSE listed company for 12 years. To quote James "There is virtually nothing that a corporate can do or will suffer that I have not seen, in action". Throughout his industry career James dealt with UK & International Pension Schemes acting both as trustee & company adviser leading corporate & trustee initiatives.
John is an Accredited Professional Trustee (AMAPPT) who has been available through Capital Cranfield since September 2021.
John is currently the Lead Trustee via Capital Cranfield for twelve pension schemes, ranging from under £5m to over £500m in asset size and an Alternate Trustee for a multi-billion pound pension scheme. Within his portfolio, John acts as the Lead Professional Corporate Sole Trustee, the Chair of the Trustee Board and also a co-Trustee and the pension schemes include the full range of DB and DC issues.
Prior to becoming a Professional Trustee, John was a Partner and Actuary at Mercer for 27 years responsible for both the strategic advice on pension schemes ranging from £7m to £7bn and Mercer's overall delivery of services to many household name companies. In addition, he ran Mercer's successful actuarial team in the Midlands and South-West region for 5 years.
John's roles as a Professional Trustee, and previously as Scheme Actuary and corporate adviser, have given him a deep understanding of the perspectives of both the Trustee and the Company. He has successfully led Trustee Boards and Companies through strategic initiatives including pensioner buy-ins, full scheme buy-outs, liability management exercises, funding negotiations, joined up funding and investment strategy discussions, end-game and journey planning, DC strategy and benefit change. He also has hands-on experience of GMP reconciliation and equalisation, investment strategy, fiduciary management, governance, communication and administration.
Outside of Professional Trustee work, John works as a part-time Pensions Manager for a Mental Health Charity and in the Summer of 2022 completed an Alps trek with his daughter raising £12,000 for the Charity Mind. He is also enjoys a number of sports, increasingly watching these days and is a long-suffering Wolves supporter.
Mark joined Capital Cranfield in 2020 and has over 30 years experience in all aspects of pensions, risk management and investment.
During his career to date, Mark has held a number of senior positions with responsibility for pensions advisory and administration businesses. He was also scheme actuary to several large UK pension funds dealing with all aspects of pension provision and complex funding arrangements, working collaboratively with trustees and sponsors to find sustainable solutions. He is experienced in pension scheme investment, funding, governance and administration, including working with overseas parents, trade unions and sectionalised schemes.
In his trustee roles, Mark chairs and sits as co-trustee on a number of defined benefit schemes (including 2 with assets over £4bn) and a large DC Master Trust (+£15bn assets). He chairs several investment committees, and is also a member of risk, governance and audit committees.
Mark is described as an enthusiastic, pragmatic and engaging trustee, with strong people and technical skills. He is an Accredited Professional Pension Trustee (APPT), has an honours degree in Statistics and is a qualified actuary. Outside pensions, Mark is a keen golfer, and amateur photographer, and loves to travel (preferably incorporating all three whenever possible).
Natalie, who joined Capital Cranfield in May 2023, supports our HR, Finance and Governance teams in our London and Nottingham Offices.
She is an experienced high-level assistant with a strong background in the Insurance and financial services industries and the NHS. Her roles have varied from administrative business partner across various teams, senior Executive Assistant and Office/Project Management.
She has a strong work ethic, a positive attitude and great communication skills enabling her to establish good working relationships across the business.
She has a keen interest in Forensic psychology having graduated with a Criminology and Psychology degree. She loves travelling the world and experiencing new cultures and places, music, animals and spending time with her family and friends.
Job Titles:
- Trustee Secretarial Services
Stephanie joined Capital Cranfield in July 2023 as a Commercial Officer, based in the London office.
Stephanie has a background in financial journalism, writing for some of the biggest financial media outlets and publications including Professional Pensions, Pensions Age, Investment & Pensions Europe and Pensions Expert. She also has a lot of experience writing corporate content for pension consultancies, master trusts and asset managers.
Stephanie joined from Rhotic Media, is a former deputy editor of Professional Pensions and previously worked at the Daily Telegraph and Euromoney.
Being an avid music fan, Stephanie enjoys going to gigs and festivals with her partner and friends. She also loves camping and travelling and has taken a keen interest in decorating since recently purchasing her first home.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Association of Professional Pension Trustees
Susan joined Capital Cranfield in 2011 after a career over more than 20 years in pensions, which included both in-house and mainstream consulting roles.
At Capital Cranfield Susan is both a professional trustee and a Board Director. Across her current portfolio she variously acts as chairman, sole trustee or co-trustee for a range of schemes, many with overseas parent companies.
Over the years, she has been involved in an extensive range of strategic projects including buy-ins and wind-ups, scheme mergers, investment strategy reviews, funding solutions and member options exercises.
Susan's natural style is to encourage all of a scheme's stakeholders to work collaboratively, building sound relationships and allowing everyone a voice. Her approach to leadership is pragmatic, practical and inclusive, providing clear direction with a strong focus on delivering solutions.
Susan is a Member of the Association of Professional Pension Trustees. Away from the office she enjoys travel, food and cinema - not necessarily in that order!