Barnett Waddingham continues to invest in its people and services with the appointment of seven new partners

We are proud to announce the appointment of 7 new Partners and the promotion of 28 Associates from 1 June.  A further 42 existing Associates have been recognised for their contribution to the firm and been awarded the title of Principal this year.

These are all as a direct result of Barnett Waddingham’s continued growth, investing in our people across a breadth of services and locations to ensure we continue to deliver a first-class service to all our clients that goes beyond their expectations.

The promotion of both Andy Parker and Sonia Kataora to Partner significantly strengthens our senior ongoing advisory team for both trustees and sponsors of DC schemes by doubling our number of partners in this area, from two to four, to reflect the growing demand for these services in the market.  The promotion of Chris Hawley and John Lawton to Partner in our Actuarial Consulting practice further strengthens our senior team who advise our expanding list of clients wanting either corporate or trustee advice to their DB schemes too.  Alongside this, Julia Turney’s promotion to Partner demonstrates our investment in the ongoing development of client tools to facilitate our advice to clients. Continued strong demand for our successful Local Government Pension Scheme services has resulted in the promotion to Partner for Barry McKay and the ongoing expansion of our insurance practice has resulted in the promotion to Partner for Nasir Shah.

Nick Salter, Senior Partner at Barnett Waddingham, said; “As Barnett Waddingham reaches the 30 year mark, with more than 1,200 staff across our 8 UK offices, our people are still at the heart of what we do in helping clients to solve their complex challenges. We continually invest in the development of all our people and we are extremely pleased to be able to appoint 7 new Partners and promote 28 new Associates this year, thanks to our continued growth.

“We have created an environment where ‘doing the right thing’ is central to everything we do and as one of the few genuinely independent consultancies we have the freedom to think freely about various challenges and provide clients with impartial advice. This, in turn, enables our people to deliver the best possible outcomes for our clients across a wide breadth of services.  All 73 of our Partners are full equity owners and the introduction of seven new Partners ensures that our genuine independence continues.”

The seven new Partners are:

Andy Parker works with a number of corporate and trustee clients to design, review and refine their DC and wider savings arrangements, to be fit for the demands of today’s multi-generational workforces.  He looks to maximise the value for the plan sponsor and trustee and the financial wellbeing of members.  This is achieved through a pragmatic consultancy approach to compliant, efficient and innovative investment, governance, administration and engagement services.

Barry McKay is an experienced Fund Actuary to a number of Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) clients.  He provides pensions advice and risk management solutions to LGPS clients and participating employers.  His remit includes developing strategies for Barnett Waddingham’s Public Sector Consulting Practice, identifying the needs of the LGPS market and developing innovative solutions to ensure Barnett Waddingham continue to deliver an excellent service to our clients and support funds in achieving their objectives as the LGPS continues to evolve.

Chris Hawley is a Scheme Actuary to a number of clients and advises a range of UK businesses on defined benefit pension issues including risk reduction exercises, scheme funding, insurance transactions and accounting disclosures. With particular expertise of Non-Associated Multi-Employer Schemes (NAMES), Chris heads up our services to employers who participate in NAMES, a number of which are in the charity and not-for profit sector. Chris is also a part of our specialist bulk annuity team helping schemes transfer their liabilities to an insurance company.

John Lawton is a pensions actuary with 20 years’ experience working with trustees and employers to manage their defined benefit pension plans. He has worked with a mixture of private and publically owned companies, with varying covenant strengths and risk attitudes.  Pragmatic outcomes, which trustees and employers can agree and build on are his priority.  Particular areas of interest and specialism relate to the implementation of liability and investment de-risking programs. 

Julia Turney is responsible for the development of our online wealth and benefits delivery proposition Me2 and how it is taken to the market. She specialises in workplace strategies and a flexible approach to benefit management and delivery. Within her area of expertise Julia is involved in formulating workplace savings and benefit strategies for clients, in particular how they are delivered and communicated to employees.

Nasir Shah supports a wide range of general (re)insurance companies across a variety of areas. Nasir has expertise in capital modelling, internal model validation, reserving, risk management, model use with visualisation, Solvency II, IFRS and process transformation projects. He also led the development of a product built to facilitate internal model communications. It is this expertise and knowledge, combined with a dynamic approach to solving challenges that has led him to be a trusted adviser to our current clients and enable us to grow our general insurance practice.

Sonia Kataora specialises in providing advice on all aspects of pension investment for DC schemes, including investment strategy reviews, investment manager selection and performance monitoring. As Head of DC Investment at Barnett Waddingham, she conducts investment strategy research and development aimed at improving the standards of DC governance, encouraging member engagement and designing robust investment solutions. Within Sonia’s role she also leads training sessions to trustees and company representatives on investment strategy issues.

The following 28 people have been promoted to Associate:

Catherine Pleass, Actuarial Consulting, Amersham
Jack Sharman, Actuarial Consulting, London
James Jordan, Actuarial Consulting, Cheltenham
Ji-Hyang Lee, Actuarial Consulting, Glasgow
Lauren Round, Actuarial Consulting Liverpool
Lewis Chapman, Actuarial Consulting, London
Mark Tinsley, Actuarial Consulting, Amersham
Nicole Tooze, Actuarial Consulting, Amersham
Harshil Shah, Corporate Consulting, London
Lewys Curteis, Corporate Consulting, Liverpool
Sarah Pearson, Governance, Leeds
Iain Maclugash, Insurance Consulting, London
Ann Tang, IT, Amersham
Alistair Mathew, Investment Consulting, Cheltenham
Dan Wooder, Investment Consulting, Liverpool
Emily Houghton, Investment Consulting, Amersham
Matthew Gold, Investment Consulting, London
Sam Hockey, Investment Consulting, Bromsgrove
Katherine Fossett, Longevity, Glasgow
Karen Perumal, Marketing, Bromsgrove
Andrea Turner, Pension Administration Leeds
Christine Kerr, Pensions Administration, Glasgow
Gwyneth Lloyd, Pensions Administration, Cheltenham
John Bacon, Pension Administration, Bromsgrove
Tim Roberts, Pension Administration, London
Louise Lau, Public Sector Consulting, Glasgow
Nick Clynes, Workplace Health and Wealth, Leeds
Peter Meyler, Workplace Health and Wealth, London

The following 42 Associates have been awarded the new title of Principal

Barbara-Ann Thompson, Actuarial Consulting, Leeds
Chris Ramsey, Actuarial Consulting, London
Dan Robinson, Actuarial Consulting, Amersham
John Cormell, Actuarial Consulting, Bromsgrove
Jonathan Smart, Actuarial Consulting, Amersham
Jon Worthington, Actuarial Consulting, Liverpool
Rosie Marsh, Actuarial Consulting, Leeds
Scott McGarva, Actuarial Consulting, Glasgow
Will Bennett, Actuarial Consulting, Cheltenham
Will Rice, Actuarial Consulting, Amersham
Jane Ralph, Corporate Consulting, Bromsgrove
Rosie Fantom, Corporate Consulting, London
Tony Broadhurst, Finance, London
Jacqui Derrick, HR, Cheltenham
Chris Binns, Investment Consulting, Leeds
David Moreton, Investment Consulting, Bristol
Ian Mills, Investment Consulting, London
Michelle Bellwood, Investment Consulting, Amersham
Pete Smith, Investment Consulting, Glasgow
Peter Daniels, Investment Consulting, Liverpool
James Harrington, IT Amersham
Amardeep Sitara, IT, London
Amanda Bradley, Pension Administration, Bromsgrove
Ben Clacker, Pension Administration, Cheltenham
Collette Graham, Pension Administration, Cheltenham
David Connell, Pension Administration, London
Fiona Rumsby, Pension Administration, Amersham
Julie Walker, Pension Administration, Glasgow
Mandie Bird, Pension Administration, Cheltenham
Mandy Bridgman, Pension Administration, Bromsgrove
Paula Hendry, Pension Administration, Liverpool
Pete Gage, Pension Administration, Amersham
Sara Cook, Pension Administration, London
Sharon Khan, Pension Administration, Leeds
Tom Cowley, Pension Administration, Bromsgrove
Annemarie Allen, Public Sector Consulting, London
Melanie Durrant, Public Sector Consulting, Cheltenham
Lisa McMinn, SIPP, Glasgow
Tim Saxton, SIPP, Cheltenham
Ian Jones, SSAS, Leeds
Kathryn Rushton, SSAS, Liverpool
Martin Willis, Workplace Health and Wealth, London