Policy Board

Our Policy Board guides and decides on our public policy positions. Its remit and representation stretches across all aspects of our policy work on pensions and lifetime savings and its goal is to shape the policy agenda for all aspects of retirement income.

The Policy Board carries out our mission to help everyone achieve a better income in retirement across six priority themes. These topics are adequacy, pensions dashboards, DB funding, DC decumulation, responsible investment and the LGPS. 

Policy Board appointments and membership are set out in our Rules. Its members were selected for their senior and strategic level experience advising and implementing on regulatory change. The Policy Committees sought policy expertise, continuity of involvement with PLSA policy and representation from key membership groups. 

The Policy Board meets four times a year. It is supported by four standing committees aligned to the current regulatory regimes: Defined Benefit, Local Authority, Defined Contribution and Master Trust pensions.

John Chilman
RPMI
Chair, PLSA Policy Board

John joined as CEO of RPMI, and an Executive Director of Railpen, in June 2019, having previously served for 12 years as a Director of the Railways Pension Scheme Trustee Company, and Chair for the last five years. John is also an Independent Trustee of the Nestlé UK Pension Fund.

John is a Chartered Accountant by qualification, and was previously Group Head of Pensions at National Grid. Prior to that John held senior financial, commercial and pension positions at a number of large companies, including PricewaterhouseCoopers, South Western Electricity, Shell, HBOS and FirstGroup.

James Chemirmir
Kingfisher

James is Pensions Director at Kingfisher Plc, where he heads up the executive team that supports the Trustee. His career spans 25+ years in pensions and benefits working in both consulting and in-house roles across several countries.  

An experienced pensions professional James has a particularly keen interest in financial wellbeing and effective communication.

Zoe Alexander
NEST

With more than 15 years’ experience working to deliver better outcomes for DC pension savers and the auto enrolment generation, Zoe has been at Nest since 2015. She leads a team focussed on developing and embedding Nest’s medium- to long-term strategy, as well as championing their members' interests in public policy and regulation.  

In addition to her role at Nest, she is Chair of the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association's Master Trust Committee and a member of their Policy Board. She is also a Non-Executive Director and Trustee of a Emmaus SLC, a charity tackling homelessness in South London.  

With a keen interest in mental health and its impact on financial wellbeing and decision making, she works with colleagues across the industry to consider and propose ways to improve retirement outcomes for vulnerable groups. 

Rachel Brothwood
West Midlands Pension Fund

Rachel is the Director of Pensions at the West Midlands Pension Fund. An actuary with over 15 years pension and investments experience, Rachel joined the Fund in 2015 and works with a wide range of organisations to support the delivery of pension benefits to over 300,000 members across the West Midlands region.

Since joining the Fund Rachel has led on development of administration, funding and investment strategy and works alongside LGPS colleagues and advisers to deliver an integrated programme of risk management to meet the challenges of an evolving scheme.

West Midlands is part of the LGPS Central investment pool for which Rachel sits as nominated representative on the Practitioners Advisory Forum.  Rachel is currently part of the PLSA Local Authority Committee, CIPFA Pensions Panel, Scheme Advisory Board Cost Management, Benefit Design and Administration sub-committee and has been elected Hon Treasurer for the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF).

Rachel graduated from the University of Nottingham with a first-class joint honours (BSc) degree in Mathematics and Economics and is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (FIA, CERA).

Fiona Brown
Rolls-Royce

Fiona is Group Head of Pensions and Benefits at Rolls-Royce Plc. She has over 25 years’ experience of working in the industry, both as a consultant and leading in-house teams. At Rolls-Royce she has overall responsibility for a large global portfolio of DB and DC pension schemes, as well as benefit insurances. She also has a number of trustee and fiduciary roles.

While pensions and benefits are Fiona’s core professional experience, she is now increasingly passionate about broader Financial Wellbeing, both for Rolls-Royce plc colleagues and more widely.

Philip Brown
The People’s Pension

Philip has worked in financial services for over 30 years, with most of his experience focused on pensions and retirement income products. During this time he has worked as an independent consultant, Head of Policy at LV= and as a Senior Policy Associate on high level projects at the Financial Services Authority, as well as being the Head of Customer Services and Technical Administration, managing the vesting process for a large back book of varied pension and life products, and was winner of The Public Affairs Awards ‘Corporate Campaign of the Year’ 2016.

Philip has been an active member of a number of industry trade bodies over the years including: the ABI Retirement and Savings Committee; the Chair of the ILAG Savings Strategy Group; a Founder member of and a Management Board Member of PICA; the Chair of the Options Steering Board; a member of the Money Advice Service Independent Review Panel; Chair of the Retirement Planning Financial Capability Strategy Steering Group; a member of the HMT FinTech Delivery Panel; a member of the InsureTech Board, as well as a member of the ABI Retirement Market Working Group.

Joanne Fairbairn
ZEDRA Governance

Joanne Fairbairn is an Accredited Professional Pensions Trustee (APPT) and Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries (FIA). She has been with ZEDRA Governance since January 2021 and holds professional trustee appointments for a range of DB and DC schemes by size and sector, including a DC Master Trust. She has over 30 years’ experience in the pensions industry and brings a wealth of knowledge gained as Scheme Actuary, consultant, in-house management, and Trustee.

She is presently Chair of the DC Policy Committee of the PLSA and a member of the PLSA Policy Board. 

Laura Hay
Tesco

Laura is the co-Head of Group Pensions for Tesco and is responsible for governance, compliance, funding and investment strategies for all Tesco Group pensions arrangements. 

Before joining Tesco, Laura was a consulting actuary at PwC for over 12 years- advising clients on a wide range of pensions issues.

Laura is keen advocate and supporter of flexible working and successfully job shares in her current role at Tesco.  

Lizzy Holliday
Now: Pensions

Lizzy joined NOW: Pensions in 2023 to lead the public affairs and policy strategy, emphasising the organisation’s mission to promote financial security through pension saving. With over 15 years’ experience in pensions policy, including in Government private pension policy roles, Lizzy has played a pivotal role in crafting policy solutions that bolster workplace pensions in the UK, benefiting pension savers.

Lizzy is returning to the Pension Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), having overseen the successful launch and implementation of the Retirement Living Standards in 2019, and the DC Decumulation consultation and final proposals in 2020.

Alan Howard
Shell

Alan is Head of UK Pensions for Shell plc with overall responsibility for Shell’s UK pension arrangements. The includes leading the Trustee Executive team for four defined benefit schemes and a defined contribution arrangement. Alan joined Shell in 2015, initially as the Group Pensions Actuary with oversight of the funding and investment strategy for the Group’s global pension arrangements, before moving to his current role in 2019. Alan is also a Trustee for Shell’s DC arrangement in the UK and holds a similar position on Shell’s Canadian pension plan.

Before joining Shell Alan was a Partner with Aon and was responsible for leading the UK corporate pensions practice. Alan is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Jamie Jenkins
Royal London

Jamie has worked in financial services for over 30 years, primarily in the area of long-term savings. He has held positions in Operations, Marketing, Proposition Development, Public Relations and Policy.

In 2017, Jamie was appointed by the Department for Work & Pensions to chair the Automatic Enrolment review on coverage, which resulted in the proposals to remove the Lower Earnings Limit from pension calculations and lower the minimum age for eligibility from 22 to 18.

In 2018, he held a global role, speaking to people around the world about different retirement systems and how countries were facing up to the challenge of an ageing population.

He sits on a number of industry-related committees and is a regular commentator in the press.

Jamie was appointed as Director of Policy & External Affairs at Royal London in January 2021.

Sorca Kelly-Scholte
BlackRock

Sorca Kelly-Scholte, Managing Director, is Lead Client Chief Investment Officer for EMEA Pensions in Multi-Asset Strategies & Solutions (MASS).

Prior to joining Blackrock in 2021, Ms Kelly-Scholte led the Pension Solutions team in EMEA at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, providing strategic advice and input to clients in the region. Before that, Sorca led strategic advisory services at Russell Investments to consulting and fiduciary management clients in Europe, designing investment strategy and de-risking glide paths for pension funds, and overseeing the implementation of those strategies. In her early career, Ms. Kelly-Scholte was a trainee actuary and consultant within the pensions team and investment consulting team at Coopers & Lybrand and Towers Perrin respectively. She has also served as a trustee on the J.P. Morgan UK Pension Plan, and continues to serve on the Policy Board of the Pensions & Lifetime Savings Association.

Ms. Kelly-Scholte holds a BA degree in Mathematics from Trinity College Dublin, and is a qualified actuary.

Ava Lau
London Stock Exchange Group

Ava Lau is the Head of Reward Analytics and Optimisation at the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), and leads LSEG’s strategy on defined benefits pension.  Her mission is to apply her analytical skills to help people make better decisions, be it in financial planning or career development.

Prior to LSEG, Ava worked at WTW as an actuary for 11 years and advised on DB, DC and public sector clients.  She was seconded to Tesco from 2014 to 2015 to assist with the closure of its defined benefits scheme and the transition to a master trust.

In addition to her current role at LSEG, she heads up the data workstream of the Pensions Regulator’s Diversity and Inclusion Working Group for Pension Trustee Boards.  She was named Pensions Manager of the Year in the inaugural Professional Pensions Rising Stars Award in 2019, and was shortlisted for Asian Women of Achievement Award in the same year. 

Neil Mason
Surrey Pension Fund

Neil leads the £5b+ Surrey Pension Fund, with over 110,000 members and nearly 350 employers.

Surrey is one of the 11 LGPS partner funds that make up the Border to Coast asset pool.

He has led the reorganisation of Surrey pensions over the last 2 years and believes excellence in service delivery is best achieved through an integrated pension service with equal emphasis on all elements of the business.

The Surrey Fund has received pension industry acknowledgement for its outstanding approach to risk management, governance, responsible investing and most recently administration.

Neil is a member of the PLSA Policy Board and Chair of its Local Government Committee. He is also the independent Chair of the Local Pension Board for the London Borough of Hounslow.

He is the father of twin boys who are both off doing far more interesting things than he ever did at university. In his spare time he supports Queens Park Rangers and three putts.

Ewan McCulloch
Border to Coast Pensions Partnership

Ewan is the Chief Stakeholder Officer for Border to Coast, the largest ‘pool’ in the Local Government Pension Scheme. In this role is he responsible for its stakeholder engagement strategy, with direct responsibility for its CRM and Policy & Communication teams.

He joined Border to Coast in 2019. Prior to this he held a range of senior roles at Lloyds Banking Group and Scottish Widows.

Paul McGlone
Aon

Paul is an actuary and partner at Aon.  He spends most of his time giving actuarial advice, but also specialises in advising pensions schemes how to manage cyber risk.

He is a past president of the Society of Pension Professionals, sits on the Policy Board of PLSA, and chairs the Joint Industry Forum sub-committee on pensions dashboards. 

Euan Miller
West Yorkshire Pension Fund

Euan is Managing Director of West Yorkshire Pension Fund, which is one of the largest regional funds in the Local Government Pension Scheme with approximately 300,000 members and £18bn of assets. WYPF also provides shared service pensions administration for three other LGPS funds and a number of regional Fire Services.

He has over 20 years’ experience in the pension industry, moving into the LGPS to become Assistant Director of Greater Manchester Pension Fund in 2014 and prior to that working as a consulting actuary for PwC and latterly KPMG, advising the trustees and sponsors of a range of private sector defined benefit schemes. In 2008 he was seconded to work for the shadow DWP minister to help develop pensions policy in areas such as automatic enrolment and what would later become ‘Freedom and Choice’.

Euan contributes to a number of industry groups, both in the LGPS and wider pensions arena. These include the PLSA Local Authority Committee and previously chairing the Institute of Actuaries’ In-house Pensions Actuaries group. 

Robert Orr
SAUL Trustee Company

Rob is Head of Technical and Communications at SAUL Trustee Company (STC) – Trustee for the non-academic staff pension scheme of the University of London. The Scheme has over 85,000 members and around £3bn in assets, has both DB and DC sections and is an authorised Master Trust. Rob joined STC in 2010. 

Rob is an experienced practitioner with wide-ranging operations experience spanning in-house, outsourced providers and regulatory environment.  He brings over 20 years’ experience in pensions to his role at STC.

As well as providing strategic advice to the Trustee Board, Committees and Executive, Rob is an organisational leader and strategic thinker who sets direction and builds effective teams to deliver operational effectiveness and performance.  Rob is particularly focussed on achieving the right outcomes for our members.

Rob is also active in the wider industry as a member of the PLSA’s Policy Board and Chair of the PLSA’s DB Committee.  

Carolyn Saunders
Dentons

Carolyn is a pensions partner with global law firm, Dentons.

A specialist pensions lawyer for over 30 years, Carolyn has supported her corporate, trustee and provider clients through many seismic changes in the industry, alongside her busy practice of advising on numerous and varied day to day legal and regulatory issues.

Before joining Dentons in September 2023, Carolyn led successful pensions teams at Taylor Wessing and then Pinsent Masons, where she was the head of the national pensions practice for many years, as well as the head of Pinsent Masons’ London office. Carolyn also has a keen interest in ESG work and is recognised for her expertise in this area – especially in relation to trustee duties around climate change, biodiversity and diversity and inclusion - where her work has included collaborations with Leeds University on climate change and with the Fawcett Society on female consumer engagement.

Carolyn is a regular conference speaker and media commentator on pensions, including for BBC Radio 4, Radio 5 Live and BBC News.

Beyond pensions, Carolyn is a longtime member of the London Philharmonic Choir and sits on the board of theatre company, Paines Plough.