The pensions industry is too “white, middle-class and male-dominated”, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has said.
PLSA chairman Lesley Williams (pictured) opened the association’s annual conference in Liverpool, with a call-to-arms urging the industry to better embrace diversity.
She told delegates: “Another relic of the 20th century was that trustee boards, IGCs and pensions management generally are still heavily white, middle-class and male-dominated.”
She added: “I need to pause here, because I can feel the defensiveness emanating from out there in the darkness.”
Williams, who is the first female to be appointed chairman of the association, said she was prompted to delve deeper into the subject of diversity after there had been a “surprising amount of noise” about her own appointment last year.
But, she added she was as guilty as anyone of avoiding and even contributing to the issue with “my unconscious bias and my learned ability to operate effectively in a male-dominated world”.
“I’ve heard a really diverse set of reasons for not doing anything, but I’ve also read tomes of literature about how diverse groups of people produce better outcomes in business,” she said.
“And that has to be the case for the governance of pensions too.”
Williams said the PLSA was dedicating its 2017 Investment Conference in March to diversity on all levels and encouraged the industry to follow suit.
She said: “If we are going to move the diversity dial we all need to reflect and take action. I encourage you all to do some diversity homework – so many of you will think, like I did, that you already embrace diversity, but will be surprised if you look hard in the mirror.”
Williams also announced the PLSA was undertaking a comprehensive review of its own governance looking at whether the council structure was right; whether its constitution gives it the flexibility it needs; and whether the current system of elections is the best way to get the best people working on behalf of all its members.
