The Defined Contribution Investment Forum

Elaine Alston joined MFS in 2007 as a Relationship Manager, responsible for the overall client experience. A member of the MFS UK Institutional Business Leadership team.

Nico is the Chief Investment Officer at B&CE. Previously, he was Head of Defined Contribution (DC) Investment at Willis Towers Watson, and Head of DC for the Barclays staff pension scheme.

He also chaired the Resource and Environment Board and is a member of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries Council.

Nico is a qualified actuary and has published papers on resource depletion and monetary sustainability – working to ensure climate change and other sustainability issues are understood and acted upon by actuaries where appropriate.

Rob J. Barrett is a Director on the UK Institutional team, responsible for institutional sales and client relationships in the UK. He began working in the investment field in 1986. Prior to joining Lazard in 2018, Rob was Head of UK and Ireland Sales with AXA Investment Managers. Prior to this, he was Institutional Sales Manager for the UK and Ireland at Invesco Perpetual, and has worked at Swisscanto, HSBC Global Asset Management and JP Morgan amongst others. Rob was the Chair of the DCIF, and was previously the secretary of the PLSA Central London Group.

Andrew leads the Defined Contribution business at Columbia Threadneedle Investments, with responsibility for strategic relationships, business development and investment proposition. Andrew started his career at Henderson Investors, where he held a position in the UK Equity team, prior to a Product Manager role at Interactive Investor. He is a frequent commentator on pension and investment matters.

Andrew holds a BSc in Management Sciences from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

Stephen recently joined LCP (June 2020) and is a Principal in LCP’s DC team.  Stephen’s role is to lead the future development of LCP’s DC investment proposition and research, while continuing with client advisory work to help support LCP’s fast-growing DC client base.

Stephen has worked in the pensions industry focusing on consulting on defined contribution plans for over 20 years. During his career, he has worked with a number of the largest sponsored DC pension schemes in the UK covering asset sizes ranging from the very smallest to those in excess of £4bn of member savings. His work with several of these schemes received two innovation awards from Professional Pensions in 2018. Stephen has also worked with six of the largest master trust arrangements during his career, including the main auto-enrolment solutions as well as three insurer-led master trust offerings.

He is actively involved in a number of industry organisations and taskforces which share the same ambition of improving member outcomes. This includes working with the DCIF on their Advisory Committee and also broader industry roles  such as the consultant input to the Patient Capital initiative work with HM Treasury

Simon is responsible for LGIM’s Defined Contribution Client Solutions, working as a DC specialist in the Institutional client team and with the DC and Investment teams to further develop our investment and retirement strategy. Simon joined LGIM in September 2016 from J.P. Morgan Asset Management where he worked as a senior relationship manager before acting as interim head of the Institutional in 2009, then Head of UK DC. Where he was responsible for the DC book of business and strategic development of the DC business. He developed, built and launched the UK JPM Target date funds (2012) as well as, post freedom and choice, working on retirement investment solutions, including diversified multi-asset and drawdown funds. Prior to that, Simon was head of client relations at ABN AMRO Asset Management, having previously held relationship management positions within the pooled funds businesses of Schroder Asset Management and Gartmore. Simon began his City career in 1984 joining a private client stockbroking firm and working as a registered representative.

Madeline (Maddi) Forrester is head of global consultant relations for MFS. In her role, she manages a global team that collectively looks after the relationships between MFS and the largest global consultants. Maddi joined MFS in 2014 as head of UK institutional business and assumed her current role in 2018. Previously Chair of the DC Investment Forum and currently a council member of the Pensions Policy Institute.

Hilary Inglis joined First Sentier Investors in 2015, as Senior Relationship manager for their Institutional Clients. Prior to which she spent seven years in Australia working within the asset management arm of the financial advice company ipac and AMP’s Corporate Super team as Head of Investments, leading the investment strategy through the launch of their MySuper default funds.

Prior to this, Hilary has worked in Edinburgh in client relationship roles for Scottish Widows Investment Partnership and for Investec Asset Management in London in a portfolio manager role within the International Equities team.

Hilary has BA Hons from Oxford Brookes University and an MBA from Heriot-Watt University.

Vivek Roy, DCIF chair, is Senior Institutional Strategist in AXA IM’s institutional business development team. Vivek is responsible for institutional business development for pensions with a focus on building partnerships with investment consultants and providing thought leadership. Vivek joined the company in February 2015. Before joining AXA IM Vivek worked at Willis Towers Watson for six years, managing pension fund investments for some of UK’s largest pension funds and was involved with setting up WTW’s initial fiduciary client base. Vivek has also previously worked for UBS’s M&A division and before that HSBC. Vivek holds a Master’s degree in Finance and Accounts from Manchester Business School.

Annabel Tonry, Executive Director, is a consultant advisor in the Global Consultant sales team at J.P. Morgan Asset Management, based in London. She has a specialism in Defined Contribution and also works with UK master trusts. Annabel sits on the Advisory board of the Defined Contribution Investment Forum (DCIF) and she sits on the committee of the industry body NextGen. She joined the company in September 2010. Before joining J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Annabel worked for EFG International and for UBS in Madrid. She gained the Investment Management Certificate in 2012.