Longview Networks DC Decumulation Investment Forum

She is a Partner and Head of Investment leading the Master trust market for Hymans in developing thought leadership in this space from an investment and governance perspective. Passionate about Responsible Investment, she works as part of the Hymans Responsible Investment team and is part of the Influence workstream of the Investment Consultants Sustainability Working Group working with regulatory bodies such as TPR and FCA to develop policy thinking and change.

Martyn James is the Director of Investment for now:pensions, the UK master trust provider.

Martyn is responsible for leading the investment strategy for the business, with a focus on improving returns and retirement outcomes for its members whilst ensuring the portfolio has a real-world impact on creating a sustainable future for its members.  He is an advocate of making sure the scheme assets are stewarded in a way to help progress the transition to net-zero by 2050.

Martyn joined now:pensions in April 2024.  Prior to joining now:pensions, Martyn spent 22 years at Mercer, most recently as a Partner within Mercer’s UK DC business, but also with a recent two and a half year secondment leading Mercer’s Wealth (Pensions and Investments) business in Latin America.

Hugo is an investment consultant to trustees and sponsors of UK defined contribution (DC) pension schemes, including both own trust and master trust arrangements. His expertise centres on designing, monitoring, and reviewing investment strategies for DC schemes according to their own specific beliefs and circumstances. Alongside advising clients, he has a key role in shaping Barnett Waddingham’s investment research from a DC perspective, including identifying innovative solutions to the decumulation challenge.

Mithesh joined Scottish Widows in January 2025 as Head of Investment Solutions, responsible for understanding the evolving customer needs across our channels engaging with market participants, translating these into outcomes to develop innovative investment solutions. He joined from Mobius Life, where, as Chief Investment Officer, he spent 15 years playing an instrumental role in building an innovative, market-leading business focused on bespoke investment solutions for a broad range of investors, particularly institutional clients.

Mithesh brings a breadth of expertise across strategic research, asset allocation, and portfolio management, combined with deep experience in designing and implementing sophisticated investment strategies. He is a CFA Charterholder and graduated with a 1st Class Honours in Mathematics with Economics. He has a strong track record of understanding client needs and partnering with asset managers and stakeholders to address complex investment challenges, delivering solutions that drive better outcomes and create long-term value. A proven innovator in both the DB and DC marketplace, Mithesh has led the development of industry-firsts spanning from structured derivative solutions, private markets to sustainable assets.

Muntazir (Monty) Hadadi is Head of Pensions at First Bus, one of the UK’s largest transport operators. He leads the organisation’s pension strategy with a strong focus on governance, value for money and member outcomes. He is also a DC scheme trustee. Monty is passionate about improving financial wellbeing across the frontline workforce and is an active contributor to industry discussions on pension reform, EDI and the future of workplace saving. He brings a practical employer perspective to debates on adequacy, contribution design and delivering better retirement outcomes for members.

Kirsty Ross is proposition director for People’s Pension, the biggest commercial master trust in the UK.

She is responsible for leading innovation and member engagement for the £40 billion plus scheme, and has extensive experience from previous roles at Aegon, Royal London, and Standard Life and now leads a growing team focused on developing new retirement products, financial wellbeing tools, and member engagement strategies.

Roger Breeden joined BESTrustees in 2021 and specialises in workplace Defined Contribution and Master Trust pension schemes.

Roger’s financial services experience spans more than 40 years, the majority of which was with Mercer where most recently as a Partner he led the launch and successful authorisation of a Master Trust establishing operational and governance systems and processes.

Roger started his career as a personal financial adviser which provided him with day to day experience of the needs of pension scheme members while both building and drawing down on their savings. His current appointments include a leading Master Trust and Independent Governance Committee.

Roger is a fully accredited professional trustee with the APPT and also outside of Pensions, Roger is a Non Exec Director and Chairperson of a not for profit company that helps people with a learning disability to lead independent lives.

Specialist areas: Defined Contribution and Master Trust; Independent Governance Committees.

Natalie is an accredited professional pension trustee and director of Law Debenture Pension Trust Corporation Plc.  She is trustee to DB, DC and hybrid schemes. Her trustee appointments include SEI MasterTrust, Tesco, Syngenta and DHL.

Natalie has worked in pensions for over 25 years with roles in pensions actuarial, investment consulting and asset management.  She is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and a CFA Charterholder.  She was awarded Fellowship of the CFA UK for her services to the investment industry.  She is a past Chair of the CFA UK.  She was shortlisted this year for a lifetime achievement award by Professional Pensions. 

James is a Workplace Investment Director looking after FutureWise Target Dated Fund Strategy and a number of key strategic IO clients since February 2023. He comes with 13 years DC Investment industry experience from Aon, where he was Head of DC Investments for 8 Years and is qualified as a Regulated Financial Planner, with a specialism in DC investment strategy design, sustainability, less liquid asset integration and provider market knowledge. His responsibilities included working on the Bank of England’s Productive Working Finance Group, governing the Aon DC Product (including the Aon Master Trust), reviewing the investment and bundled proposition of pension providers and advising Employers and Trusts on their workplace investment strategy.

Georgie enables employees to afford a good life beyond work. She is currently leading the digital transformation of DC member services at the £12bn hybrid master trust, The Pensions Trust (TPT). As Associate Director, DC Proposition, Georgie recently introduced an innovative managed income in drawdown service and a substantial upgrade to TPT’s DC member experience, including new data-integrated planning tools and wholly refreshed service communications & engagement. Georgie has an extensive pensions background in consulting, administration, client relationship management, and, latterly, proposition development, having joined TPT in June 2023 from Fidelity International.

Thomas Duetoft is the Senior Portfolio Manager for the Senior Loan Strategy. His responsibilities include the selection, due diligence, structuring of investments, and the management of the Senior Loan Strategy to achieve its investment objectives. He is a member of the Direct Lending Operating Committee of Pemberton Capital Advisors LLP and a member of the Credit Review Committee.

In his capacity as Head of Client Solutions Thomas is responsible for leading strategic client engagement with a focus on product partnerships and capital formation across private credit.

Thomas joined Pemberton in 2014. Prior to that he was a Managing Director at RBS, where he held a number of roles including Head of European Loan Trading and Head of Credit Trading, Asia ex-Japan.

He has over 25 years of experience in loan and credit markets. Previously he was a Managing Director at Dresdner Kleinwort, responsible for European Loan Trading from 2001-2006. He began his career in finance in 1998 at Citibank.

Thomas graduated from the University of Copenhagen with a Master of Law.

Taylor Weeks is the Head of Strategic Delivery, Retirement Solutions within Schroders Solutions. Since joining Schroders on the graduate scheme in 2019, Taylor has developed a broad skill set working across projects including portfolio design, financial modelling, and data analytics.

In his current role, Taylor focuses on designing new retirement solutions for global markets and collaborates with strategic partners to enhance their offerings to individual investors. Taylor has developed expertise in personalised investing and is particularly interested in exploring how personalisation can improve outcomes for retirees. Taylor is also the AI lead for Solutions and represents the division in Schroders’ firm-wide AI Enablement Working Group, which explores the adoption of AI tools to drive efficiency and deliver better results for clients.

Taylor studied Economics at the University of Warwick and achieved a first-class degree. In 2023, Taylor became a CFA Charterholder.

Elena is an Investment Consultant at The Pensions Regulator. She is a senior investment professional with more than 15 years of experience spanning investment strategy and asset class research across public and private asset classes in DC pensions. Previously, Elena led DC investment research at Hymans Robertson, prior to that held senior roles at Invesco, Janus, and gained her capital markets experience at Citigroup and McKinsey and Co.

Elena holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and is a CFA charterholder. 

James continues to lead Isio’s research into the DC Decumulation market. He joined Isio in 2019 and has worked with DC clients for 10+ years. During his time at Isio he has worked with a range of DC clients, including leading some of the largest “DC change” projects in the market, ongoing advisory for Trustees, and investment advisory for Master Trusts. In 2023 James took responsibility to lead Isio’s research project into Decumulation.

Over the last 3 years he has worked with an independent academic from the University of Manchester, leading experts from around the world, managed a project with an external firm to undertake “on the ground” user research (e.g. interviews, focus groups, surveys), and engaged with Regulators in the UK and Australia regarding the challenges presented by Default Decumulation.