06 October 2010
The following seven appointments have been made to the board of
the Pensions Advisory Service. The first meeting of the new board
takes place on Wednesday 6 October 2010. The appointments include a
current TPAS volunteer adviser and two existing board
members.
Alex Balfour - is the Head of New Media at
London 2012 (LOCOG) the organisation responsible for staging the
London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He is one of the UK's
most experienced, well connected and respected new media
professionals and has five years experience of chairing the board
of a leading private sector Internet business. He also holds an MA
in History.
Colette Bewley - is a TPAS volunteer adviser
and an experienced executive board director of Burges Salmon LLP, a
UK top 50 commercial law firm. She has responsibility
for strategic development of the firm's legal services
to support competitive advantage for their
clients. Colette is a Solicitor and
former Partner in Pensions working at a time of rapid growth
and change in the pension arena. She has significant
experience in organisational development and change management. She
is a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute, BSc, Diploma in
Law and an Executive coach.
David Clarke - has over 20 years board level
experience, both as a non-executive and executive director. His
non-executive roles include: Forensic Science Service Ltd,
Cumberland Building Society and PhonepayPlus Ltd. He is a fellow of
the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Chartered Institute of
Management Consultants in addition to a BSc in Business
Studies.
Bill Galvin - is currently interim chief
executive of the Pensions Regulator and a member of the Managing
Board of the Committee of European Insurance and Occupational
Pensions Supervisors (CEIOPS). Previous to this he was an Executive
Director for The Pensions Regulator with responsibility for all
strategy, research and analysis, regulatory policy and programmes,
communications and stakeholder management. He has significant board
level experience in the public and private sectors and holds an
MBA.
Anthony Hodgkiss - is an experienced senior
board member with a background in the management of large
organisations mainly in the public sector. He has many years
experience of leading strategic planning and management including
the creation of private/public/voluntary partnerships. He is
a qualified solicitor (not practicing) and mediator.
Rt. Hon. Baroness Hollis of Heigham - is a
working peer in the House of Lords and from 1997 to 2005 she was a
DWP Minister specializing in pension work. She has had three
careers: as a university academic in Norwich, local authority
leader and member of various public bodies. She has a number
of publications and is a frequent conference speaker.
Tilly Ross - is the Global Head of Retirement
Plans at National Grid plc, with responsibility for strategy,
governance, administration, risk management and funding of pension
and other post retirement plans. Her board experience includes
being Chair of the CBI's Pensions Panel, a member on National
Grid's Global Retirement Plan Committee and a Director of
Electricity Pensions Limited. Her qualifications include Fellow of
the Institute of Actuaries and a MA in mathematics.
Minister of State for Pensions, Steve Webb said ' I am pleased
to welcome these new Board members to TPAS. This injection of new
talent will enhance the breadth of knowledge and expertise
available and I look forward to working with them'.
TPAS Chairman Partha Dasgupta commenting on the high calibre of
the new board members said:
"I am delighted to lead a board with such a wealth of
experience, energy and diverse skills. It demonstrates the high
level of importance and value that leading professionals place on
TPAS' work. Their skills and experience will be invaluable to TPAS
as it gets ready to meet the challenges posed by the changing
landscape in the world of pensions"
Notes for Editors
- The new board consists of these seven appointments together
with Partha Dasgupta, the chairman and Marta Philips, the chief
executive. Anthony Hodgkiss and Baroness Hollis were also on
the previous board. The new Board members will receive
£5k per annum for a minimum of 10 days. The
appointments commenced on 1 August 2010 and will run until 31 July
2013 for all members except Tony Hodgkiss who will step down in
2012 after 10 years on the board.
- The previous board stood down on 30 June 2010 as part of the
TPAS Modernisation programme. The number of board members has
reduced from 12 to 9 as part of that review.
- The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS) is an independent
organisation, operating at arm's length from DWP. It
provides independent, non-regulated, one-stop information and
guidance to members of the public on pensions matters. TPAS
has three core services that it offers to individuals free of
charge: information and guidance, dispute resolution and visits to
the workplace to provide information on retirement planning.
- TPAS provides a national pensions helpline 0845 601 2923 which
is open 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday. The dedicated pensions
helpline for women is contactable during the same hours on 0845 600
0806. In 2009/10 TPAS received 74,717 helpline calls, 16,371
written enquiries and over 1,305,348 people visited its website at
www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk
and handled 7,769 pension disputes.
- The service is provided by a nationwide network of volunteers
and augmented by technical and administrative staff based in
London. TPAS is funded by grant-in-aid from DWP which is
recovered by a general levy on pension schemes.
