Mercer’s experts will be joined at this event by a number of industry experts, including the following.

Dr David McCarthy, Imperial College Business School

David McCarthy received his PhD from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. He then worked at the Oxford Institute of Ageing, at Oxford University, for one year before accepting a position as lecturer in the Finance group at the Imperial College Business School.

David's research interest is the economics and finance of pensions. He has written on annuities markets, the economics and finance of pension insurance, and analysed occupational pension scheme design.

Recently he has concentrated on optimal investment policies in defined contribution pension accounts and the evaluation of sponsor credit risk in pension schemes. He has also examined the rationale for pension scheme regulation.

David has consulted for a number of pension consultancies and government departments, including the Department for Work and Pensions in the UK.

Rosemary Kennell, Capita Fiduciary and Chair of trustees of the Emap Earnings Related Pension Plan

Rosemary worked as an actuary for several actuarial consultancies prior to becoming a professional pension trustee with Aspen (Actuaries & Pension Consultants) plc where she set up and ran their independent trustee services.

In 2007, Aspen were taken over by Capita and since September 2007, Rosemary has been part of Capita Fiduciary group where she is a director of their two pension trustee companies. As chair of trustees of the Emap Earnings Related Pension Plan trustee board, she led the £170m buy-out in 2007, the first all risks transfer to an insurer. She is currently the chair of a trustee board undertaking a very similar deal. Amongst other trustee roles, she is also chair of one of the Sea Containers pension schemes, the only schemes where the Pensions Regulator has issued Financial Support Directions on the companies involved, and she was a witness in the Chapter 11 bankruptcy court on behalf of the trustee board.

She is an Associate of the Institute of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute and also of the Royal Statistical Society.

Andrew Reid, director, Credit Suisse

Andrew Reid is a director in the UK team of Credit Suisse's Life Finance Group. The group trades and structures products related to longevity and mortality risk. It wrote the first longevity only hedge with a UK pension scheme.

Andrew joined Credit Suisse in 2008, after 17 years at Watson Wyatt, latterly as head of corporate consulting in its pensions consultancy practice. Andrew holds an MA (Hons) from the University of Oxford.

Kerrigan Procter, head of Solutions Group, Legal & General Investment Management

Kerrigan is head of the Solutions group at LGIM where he is responsible for developing risk management solutions for pension and insurance clients.

He joined LGIM in 2006 from RBS Financial Markets where he held a number of roles including head of pension strategy for external pension clients and head of credit risk measurement for RBS's derivatives portfolio.

Previously he was a consultant for Mercer Investment Consulting and started his career in the pension advisory arm of Ernst & Young Corporate Finance.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and has a PhD in Number Theory from King's College London.

Clare Hoxey, partner, Clifford Chance

Clare Hoxey is a partner at Clifford Chance specialising in all areas of pensions law and practice. Clare acts for buy-in/out providers, trustees of occupational pension schemes and UK and multinational public and private corporations.

Recent buy-in/out work has included acting for Aviva on a number of transactions including the first buy-in in relation to a FTSE100 company (Friends Provident) and acting for the trustees of the Dairy Crest Group Pension Scheme in relation to buy-ins with Legal & General.

Clare is a member of the Investment Sub-Committee of the Association of Pension Lawyers and a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute.

Charles Goddard, managing director, PAN Trustees

Charles has been in pensions for over 35 years and a professional trustee for over 20 years. He is the MD of PAN’s Trustees Discontinuance and Wind-up operations.

He has been involved in a number of high profile arrangements which are either “landmark” cases or have now established precedents for the pensions industry.

He determined the first Compromise Agreements (“The Bradstock Pension Scheme”), and alerted the industry to the “Pensions Liberation Schemes” scandal.  He was lead director in a significant High Court case which determined the “appropriate contribution rule” on wind-up. The same scheme led to a further case being brought against HMRC on unfair treatment of VAT in insolvency with a ground-breaking victory.

He was appointed to the first PPF cases, notably including the Heath Lambert Schemes which was the first compromise agreed with TPR for its future management. This is now the minimum test for PPF consideration.

Has been involved throughout with all aspects of mitigating risk for solvent schemes and in many of the new methods now being considered. He oversaw the first “on-line” auctions in conjunction with Mercer, and organised managed “wind-down” appointments.  

He is a member of the PPF Trustee Guidance Committee, FAS Advisory Panel and a contributor to TPR’s E-learning committee.