The Lancashire County Pension Fund (LCPF) and London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) have announced Michael O’Higgins as chairman of their £10bn partnership.
Higgins, a former chairman of The Pensions Regulator, will chair the recently-formed London and Lancashire Pensions Partnership (LLPP) which sees the £5.8bn (LCPF) and £4.6bn (LPFA) funds collaborate on investment.
The LLPP will pool the two funds’ assets, jointly manage the liabilities of the two administering authorities and offer pension fund management as a fully-fledged pension service organisation.
O’Higgins currently occupies a number of chairman positions including at Investec SP Calculus VCT and the NHS Federation. He is also a non-executive director and chairman of the Remuneration Committee at Network Rail.
He has also held roles at the University of Bath, Price Waterhouse Management Consulting Services and PA Consulting Group as well as a variety of chairmanships, including the Audit Commission, Centrepoint and Alexander Mann Solutions.
Lancashire County leader Jennifer Mein said: “As we await the government’s announcement of their criteria to assess proposals for pooling LGPS assets, we are moving forward at pace. Michael’s vision and experience are welcome assets, which should give others confidence in the seriousness of our joint endeavour, as we work towards launching the new company in April 2016.”
LPFA chairman Merrick Cockell added: “Michael is highly respected in the public and private sectors as well as academia. His experience is invaluable as we develop this unique and ground-breaking partnership and we look forward to working with him. To have a person of Michael’s calibre chairing the partnership is a real testament to what we are trying to achieve.”
O’Higgins said: “I’m delighted to be involved with Lancashire and LPFA as they embark on this ambitious project that could completely change the face of the public sector pension industry. I applied for this role because I believe what Lancashire and London are doing with this partnership is exactly what should happen across local government, and indeed the wider pension sector, to help secure better benefits for members.
“My first task will be to recruit a board to support this and in order to ensure the governance capability to deliver the ambitions of the partnership.”
O’Higgins will be joined on the LLPP board by deputy leader of Lancashire County Council (LCC), David Borrow, as the LCC representative and Skip McMullan as the LPFA board representative, as well as three new independent non-executive directors to be appointed shortly.
Comments