Room151’s LGPS North 2026

Mr. Mcilrath is a senior vice president and product strategist in the London office, focusing on alternative credit. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2024, he worked for Apollo Global Management in their product team and was responsible for alternative credit solutions for insurance, family office, and pension investors across EMEA. Previously, he worked for J.P. Morgan’s credit team, focused on sponsor origination in Europe. He has 11 years of investment experience and holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Nottingham, U.K. He is a CFA charterholder.

Paul leads the Schroders Capital’s UK Institutional Team, where he has a particular focus working with Local Authority Pension Pools and underlying Partner Funds.  

Prior to joining Schroders in April 2021, Paul worked at BMO Global Asset Management, Nordea Investment Management and Amundi Asset Management over the previous 20 years, where he was again responsible for the UK Institutional Business with a focus on LGPS and  UK Corporates. Paul has been involved in LGPS industry groups including the Investment Management Association LGPS Pool working group. 

Paul was awarded an MA in Economics and Politics from Aberdeen University, holds the Investment Management Certificate and is an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Trevor Castledine is Chief Client and Advisory Officer at LGPS Central Limited. He has extensive LGPS and broader investment management experience and has worked as an investment consultant recognised as a leading expert in private market investment. A Chartered Accountant and former Investment Banker, Trevor has been a member of the LGPS community since working as Deputy CIO at Lancashire County Pension Fund (LCPF) and then Deputy CIO and Investment Director for Private Credit at LGPS pooling entity LPPI. Before joining LGPS Central, Trevor served as an Independent Adviser to the South Yorkshire Pensions Authority.

Alongside his role at LGPS Central, Trevor acts as an NED on the board of a regional direct lending fund manager based in the Northeast of England.

John Dewey is Chief Investment Officer of West Yorkshire Pension Fund (WYPF), part of Northern LGPS. WYPF invests globally across public and private markets on behalf of the Fund’s members and employers.

Previously, John was Managing Director at HSBC Alternatives, based in Singapore. Prior to this he held senior investment roles in London and Paris at BlackRock and Aviva Investors. John holds a First Class master’s in applied mathematics from the University of Cambridge and is a qualified investment actuary.

Outside work, John has a passion for sport, travel and the outdoors and has competed nationally and internationally at elite level in several endurance sports. He is a British Cycling accredited volunteer coach at his local youth cycling club.

Bruno Founded Ginkgo in 2008 and acts as Executive President of Ginkgo Advisor. Prior to Ginkgo, Bruno has worked 15 years in management consulting, financial risk advisory and project finance in Geneva, Brussels and New-York. Bruno holds a Master in Business Engineering from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management, a Master of Financial Economics from the Leuven School of Business and Economics and a Certificate in Financial Engineering from the Haas Business School, University of California Berkeley. He is a lecturer on Impact Investing at the Solvay Brussels School of Economics & Management, ULB.

Andrew is a Senior Director and Fund Manager with CBRE Global Investors. Andrew is the Fund Manager for the CBRE UK Long Income Fund. Andrew is a Certified Person under the FCA’s Senior Managers & Certification Regime (SMCR).

Andrew has approximately 14 years of real estate experience. Most recently he spent approximately two years as an Investment Manager for a UK based private property company, the entirety of his real estate career before this was spent at Aviva Investors. Andrew’s tenure at Aviva Investors was primarily focussed upon acquisitions and fund management for a range of long income funds.

He was assistant fund manager on the REaLM suite of funds focussing upon income strips and latterly was the co fund manager on the Lime Property Fund and the Fund Manager for the long income portfolio of the Aviva Staff Pension Scheme. During his time at Aviva Investors Andrew was responsible for over £1.2billion of long income transactions spanning all sectors and structures including ground rents, income strips and conventional long lease transactions.

Andrew is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Andrew is also FCA approved, having obtained the Investment Management Certificate in 2007. Andrew graduated from the City University, Cass Business School in 2007 with a BSc (Hons) degree in Real Estate Investment and Finance.

Iain leads Hymans Robertson’s investment consulting advice to LGPS funds. In this role, Iain covers the vast array of challenges clients face, including investment strategy, pooling and responsible investment. Iain’s experience spans over a decade, including time spent working within the LGPS as an inhouse investment manager at Greater Manchester Pension Fund.

Iain loves building strong relationships with his clients and prides himself on his ability to communicate clearly, taking the endless complexity and jargon within the investment world and distilling it into easily understandable language for his clients.

Mr. Bonetti is an executive vice president and head of the client solutions and analytics team in EMEA. Until 2015, he was an account manager focusing on institutional clients in the Nordics. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2012, he worked in structured credit at Moody’s Investors Service, rating European residential mortgage-backed securities. He has 17 years of investment and financial services experience and holds a master’s degree in finance from the London Business School. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

April joined Insight in September 2008 and leads the Investment Specialist Team. April joined Insight from F&C Investments where she was a portfolio manager responsible for managing UK, US and global government bond portfolios. Prior to this, she was in government bond and derivative sales at Lehman Brothers. April began her career as a government bond portfolio manager at Newton Investment Management. April graduated with a BA in Economics from Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, United States and an MBA from City University Business School in London. She is also an Associate of the CFA Society of the UK.

Ian Simm is the Founder and Chief Executive of Impax Asset Management Group plc, one of the world’s leading investment managers focused on the transition to a more sustainable economy, with offices and clients in Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific region.

Outside Impax, Ian is a member of the UK government’s Net Zero Council, which provides strategic leadership to support delivery of the government’s low carbon objectives, and its Net Zero Innovation Board, which provides strategic oversight of public sector funding of energy innovation programmes.  He is a board member of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, the European membership body for investor collaboration on addressing climate change a commissioner with the Energy Transitions Commission, a global coalition of leaders developing transition roadmaps to achieve net-zero emissions, and the chair of the Net Zero Committee of the Confederation of British Industry.  His past roles include being a board member of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the UK’s leading funding agency for environmental science, and a Commissioner with the Severn Estuary Commission.  Prior to Impax, Ian was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company advising clients on environmental strategy.

Ian has a first-class honours degree in physics from Cambridge University and a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University.  After his first degree he initiated and led an expedition to complete the first summer crossing of the Sahara Desert by tandem bicycle.

Stuart is a director in the Clients Department. He joined Baillie Gifford in 2003, and became a partner of the firm in 2014.  Stuart oversees distribution and coordinates global marketing and product development activity. He sits on various management groups including the firm’s Strategic Priorities Group, Client Management Group and ESG Oversight Group. His experience with the firm prior to his current role has included managing institutional sales and consultant relationships, and the creation of a dedicated financial institutions team. In recent years Stuart’s focus has been on the development of the firm’s overall ‘Actual Investors’ philosophy, evolving our product range and improving our ability to bespoke portfolios to meet individual client preferences. Prior to joining Baillie Gifford, Stuart worked with Dresdner RCM in Hong Kong and Aberdeen Asset Management in the UK. He graduated BA in Finance and Business Law from the University of Strathclyde in 1993.

Ryan Boothroyd is Head of External Management at Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, the UK’s largest public sector pension plan. He oversees a £20bn programme of externally managed public market portfolios, covering asset classes from global equities to multi‑asset credit, and leads a ten‑strong team of investment professionals. Ryan first joined Border to Coast in 2018 as one of the early members of the investment team, where he played a significant role in shaping the organisation’s fund range and supporting the success of local government pension pooling. After spending two years in the Multi‑Asset team at Legal & General, he returned to Border to Coast to lead its External Management function. He has held portfolio management roles at both asset managers and asset owners, including Janus Henderson Investors and Railpen. Ryan is a CFA Charterholder and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Cambridge.