In July 2023, the former Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, introduced the phrase ‘productive finance’ in his Mansion House speech, emphasising the importance of directing UK pensions schemes towards investing in productive assets. The new Labour Government is building on this theme to renew UK assets and stimulate economic growth. They are moving quickly to increase investment from the £2.5tn of assets investment by UK defined benefit (DB), defined contribution (DC), local government pension schemes (LGPS) and bulk purchase annuity (BPA) insurers.
Of course, pension schemes’ primary interest is investing for the long-term interests of their members. How do pension schemes square the circle of investing in the UK economy and doing the right thing for their members?
We discussed the following questions:
We were delighted to be joined by an expert panel of speakers from Better Society Capital, Greater Manchester Pension Fund, The Good Economy and Debbie Fielder, formerly of Clwyd Pension Fund.
Following the panel discussion, we moved into breakout rooms of mixed stakeholders, led by some of our Community Partners: AXA Investment Managers, Cardano and Federated Hermes Limited.
Who was this event for?
This event was open to all our members.
Speakers' biographies
Anna Shiel, Chief Investment Officer, Better Society Capital
Anna leads the investment team that invests and manages Better Society Capital's portfolio of impact investments, which has committed over £900mn to impact investments in the UK. She is a member of the Investment Committee and Executive Committee.
Anna joined Better Society Capital in 2012. Over the last ten years, she has helped shape BSC’s strategy and make investments that have grown the UK social impact investment market more than ten-fold to over £9bn. Within this, she led on developing segments of this market including: social property funds, blended finance, place-based investment and community finance.
Before joining BSC, Anna had over ten years' experience in investment and strategy, working in Merrill Lynch’s Financial Institutions Group. She was a Board member of Charity Bank between 2014 and 2022 and is now a member of Access Foundation's Blended Finance Investment Committee and the Local Access Blended Investment Committee.
Alex Jones, Investment Manager Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF)
Alex is an Investment Manager working in the Local Investments team. GMPF are one of the largest local government pension funds in the UK and has an allocation of 5% towards local investments. Alex joined GMPF in May 2021.
Alex is responsible for the Impact Portfolio which has an investment mandate to gain cost effective, diversified exposure to impact investments located predominantly in the Northwest of England with a focus on Greater Manchester. Jobs and place are the primary impact themes of the portfolio.
Alex has a degree from the University of Warwick in Law and Business Studies and is a Chartered Accountant (CPFA) and is studying towards CFA Level III.
Debbie Fielder, Non-Executive Director, Pensions for Purpose
Debbie retired in 2024. Her previous role was the Deputy Head of the Clwyd Pension Fund, a £2.4bn Local Government Pension Scheme and a member of the Wales Pension Partnership (WPP).
Her responsibilities covered all investment and governance aspects within the fund, but her particular interest and passion was impact and place-based investing in the private market portfolio.
Debbie continues to keep her position as a Non-Executive Director of Pensions for Purpose.
In her retirement, Debbie plans to spend as much time as Brexit allows in the Murcia region of Spain.
Sam Monger, Head of Place-Based Impact Investing and Strategic Advisory, The Good Economy (TGE)
Sam Monger brings 30 years’ experience developing, reviewing and delivering investment solutions from an advisory and investor/developer perspective.
Sam led in the delivery of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) UK Urban Futures Commission's report 'Unleashing the potential of the UK’s cities’ and wrote the ‘Investment Playbook’, an introductory guide for local government on how to engage effectively with private finance in pursuit of place-based regeneration and social impact goals.
Before joining TGE, Sam worked for Grosvenor, where he led financial analysis, research and strategy in the UK property business for several years, including developing Grosvenor’s net zero and social impact strategies. He developed of a sophisticated spatial modelling capability, which used multiple datasets to understand drivers of place-based value and risk across several real estate sectors. In addition, he led strategy development and implementation of Grosvenor Hart Homes, an innovative, impact-led social housing business.
Before that, Sam held senior advisory roles at PwC and IBM leading teams advising on some of the largest and most complex public-private partnerships in the UK, including the DWP PRIME portfolio PFI transaction and securing a financing deal for Avon & Somerset Constabulary’s custody portfolio.
Breakout Room Moderators
Claudia Sanchez, Sales and Client Relations Manager, AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM)
Claudia Sanchez Buenaventura is responsible for managing and developing clients in the UK and Nordic region. Before joining AXA IM in 2023, she held various business development and management roles at Alliance Bernstein, focused on institutional and retail clients in the UK and in Europe. Claudia is an advocate of a dual investment objective - seeking financial returns while having a positive impact on the world - and being a good corporate citizen. To advance these ideals, she has founded a women’s group and wellbeing groups.
Claudia holds an MSc in Development Studies from the University of London, UK and a BA in International Economics and International Affairs from James Madison University, Virginia, USA.
Guinevere Taylor, Head of LGPS Relationships, Cardano
Guinevere heads up Cardano’s relationships with the LGPS across the UK. Guinevere joined Cardano from RBC BlueBay Asset Management, where she spent six years in a distribution role, focusing predominantly on building awareness and market presence of RBC GAM-UK and latterly RBC BlueBay Asset Management within the LGPS sector. Before that she spent four years within the LGPS Relationship Team at Legal and General Investment Management.
She is an ambassador for the Diversity Project, promoting the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in the financial services industry.
Guinevere has a BA Hons in History from Liverpool University and holds the CFA ESG certificate.
Bill Manahan, Director of Institutional Solutions, Downing
Bill joined Downing in July 2023 as a Director of Institutional Solutions. He has a wealth of experience in the institutional space - private markets, risk management - across fundraising and business development. He holds a degree in Commerce from University College Dublin and has a post graduate diploma in Law from the Department for international Trade (DIT).
Douglas Anderson, Head of International Consultant Relations, Federated Hermes Limited
Douglas joined Federated Hermes Limited in February 2017 as Head of Consultant Relations. Prior to this, he was a consultant relations manager at Lazard Asset Management Limited for five years from 2011 and at Capital International for 11 years from 2000.
He has also worked in consultant and actuarial roles at Bacon & Woodrow (now Aon Hewitt) and Hymans Robertson. Douglas holds the Investment Management Certificate (IMC) qualification and a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from the University of St Andrews.
Host
Charlotte O'Leary, CEO, Pensions for Purpose
As CEO and an executive director of Pensions for Purpose, Charlotte oversees the running of the business, develops the growth and innovation strategy and looks for opportunities to build partnerships to achieve their mission. She also co-leads the training and Business Briefing service for asset owners and their advisers.
Charlotte is a member of the Sounding Board for the Social Value Portal, the Advisory Board for the Sororum, the pensions expert group for the Global Steering Group for Impact Investing and a member of the Pensions Equity Group.
She has over 15 years of experience in asset management, starting in fund analysis and progressing through to institutional business development, having worked for some well-known institutions, including Jupiter, Pictet and Cambridge Associates. Through these roles, Charlotte has built a knowledge and passion for sustainable investing. She has demonstrated this in co-authoring a paper with the Society for Pension Professionals on social impact investing and speaking on topics such as fee and service transparency at PLSA and Transparency Taskforce events. She worked in partnership with the Impact Investing Institute's to develop the Impact Investing Principles for Pensions.
Pensions for Purpose
Pensions for Purpose exists as a bridge between asset managers, pension funds and their professional advisers, to encourage the flow of capital towards impact investment. Our aim is to empower pension funds to seek positive impact opportunities and mitigate negative impact risks.
Our Community allows members to learn from leaders in the impact investment industry. We provide a trusted environment to interact, collaborate and share knowledge. Members engage in a programme of activity to shape their strategy in ESG, sustainable and impact investments.
For more information, please email the Membership Manager.
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