Room151’s LGPS Private Markets Forum 2023

Tom is a Director in Baillie Gifford’s  Private Companies Team.  Prior to this he led Baillie Gifford’s LGPS business for many years with responsibility for reporting to a number of LGPS funds and pools.

David is an actuary with over 25 years’ experience in the pensions industry, having spent 10 years at KPMG, where he provided advice to the social housing sector as well as leading KPMG’s proposition around pensions to the higher education sector.

David supported the National Housing Federation with their response to the Pension Regulators Code of Practice around pension funding and he has also advised on asset backed funding vehicles and strategic asset allocation for pension funds more generally.

More recently, David has joined Barnet Council as their Head of Pensions and Treasury, where he will be working closely with the Pension Fund Committee to help reshape their investment strategy as they seek to develop their Responsible Investment policy and prepare for, what could be, a very different investment outlook to that experienced over the last 10 years or so

Adil Manzoor is a member of the Investment Team at Merseyside Pension Fund and is responsible for Infrastructure and Local Investment Portfolios. Prior to joining Merseyside Pension Fund, Adil worked at a ­rm of chartered accountants providing accountancy, tax and business consultancy services across the north west of England. Adil is an associate chartered accountant and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Leandros is the Chief Investment Officer of West Yorkshire Pension Fund (‘WYPF’), which has approximately £18bn of assets and 300,000 members. He leads a large investment team directly investing across public, private and alternatives markets, alongside the collaborative partnerships in infrastructure though GLIL and in private equity through NPEP. He was most recently Head of Portfolio Solutions at abrdn and Head of Credit at USS, and started his career in banking and alternatives firms.

Leandros has an MBA from INSEAD and an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford

Tricia joined the Redington team in June 2021 as a Director in Manager Research, with responsibility for leading the private credit team to source, select and deliver best-in-class investment solutions to Redington’s institutional and wealth management client base.  

Tricia most recently gained experience in the Public Sector at Greater Manchester Pension Fund, developing the private credit, private equity and infrastructure programmes, alongside helping to build the ESG framework for private markets. 

Tricia launched her career on the Graduate Programme at Goldman Sachs over 20 years ago, where she also qualified as a Chartered Accountant, an ideal foundation before moving into a credit hedge fund.   In 2008 Tricia joined Absolute Return Partners, an alternatives investment management boutique, as a credit and ILS analyst.  In 2010 she was made Partner and built out the investment research and management teams for private markets, with a continued focus on private credit.  Tricia also took on responsibility for key advisory relationships with pension funds and Family Offices clients supporting strategy education, fund selection, implementation and monitoring of managers.

Philip heads our LGPS Investment team and has a strong track record of identifying and evaluating new investment opportunities, building investment cases, structuring appropriate solutions (involving funds or direct investments), and in their execution.

Prior to joining Hymans Robertson in 2020, Philip worked for over 20 years in the asset management industry supporting institutional clients in the development and implementation of their investment strategies.

Deborah Wardle is the Alternatives Leader for the UK at Mercer. She works in London and leads discussions with our clients on their asset allocation, portfolio construction and manager selection decisions across both private market and hedge fund strategies.

Ms. Wardle has 13 years investment experience and is responsible for bringing Mercer’s Alternatives capabilities to clients and prospects in the UK, delivering best-in-class alternatives programs. 

She is a member of Mercer’s Infrastructure Ratings Review Committee and in 2019, Ms. Wardle was named Investment Manager of the Year at the Professional Pensions Rising Star Awards.

Deborah Wardle holds a First Class degree in Mathematics, is a CFA® charter holder and a CAIA® charter holder. 

Barney is a Managing Director, Co-Head of the Clean Energy team and member of the Executive Committee. He is also a member of our Responsible Investment Committee. He has over a decade of renewable energy financing experience across Europe. Prior to joining the team, Barney spent over six years in energy corporate finance at Ernst & Young in London, working across lead advisory, project finance, and M&A in the clean energy and utility sectors. He also provided transaction advice to both the private and public sector on large-scale clean energy infrastructure procurement processes. Barney has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from University of Cambridge and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

Neil leads the £5bn+ Surrey Pension Fund, with over 110,000 members and more than 300 employers. Surrey is part of the Border to Coast asset pool, nearly qualifying as the “Coast”.

The Surrey Fund has been acknowledged for outstanding approach to risk management and governance in recent years and continues to strive for new ways to innovate and collaborate. It has also been recognised for its excellence in sustainable investing, winning accolades at the Pensions Age Awards, the LAPF Awards and the Public Finance Awards.

Neil is a member of the PLSA Policy Board and Local Government Committee. He is also an independent member of the Local Pension Board at his old stamping ground, the London Borough of Hounslow.

He is the father of twin 18 year old boys and a long suffering supporter of Queens Park Rangers. The inability to watch them live during lockdown was a blessing.

Mark Lyon is Deputy Chief Investment Officer at Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, one of the largest LGPS pools in the UK responsible for the management of £38.3bn. He oversees the management of the internal equities, fixed income and private markets investment functions. Mark has more than 20 years’ experience in investment management and is a CFA Charterholder. He was previously the Head of Investments for the Derbyshire and East Riding local authority pension funds. Prior to working in investment management, Mark worked in Corporate Finance and Audit for BDO Stoy Hayward where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant.

Olly Hughes has been Managing Director and an Investment Committee member of our Forestry division since January 2019. He is responsible for managing the growth and development of Gresham House’s sustainable forestry and land management investment activities including sustainable timber, carbon and other natural capital opportunities.

Prior to joining Gresham House, Olly was a Partner and Head of Infrastructure at Oxford Capital for six years where he built and managed a portfolio of over £300m of solar and wind renewable energy assets. He started his career at ING Barings in 1995 focusing on asset backed structuring and since then has focused his career on natural capital investment management.

Olly has over 25 years of investment experience and holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master’s degree from the University of Oxford in Biological Science. He also obtained the Investment Management Certificate from the CFA Society in the UK.

Nemashe Sivayogan is an Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. Nemashe is currently working as Head of Treasury and Pensions at the London Borough of Merton. Before Merton, she worked at the LB of Lambeth where she gained her technical knowledge and skills. Nemashe has 18 years of Local Government experience, with significant knowledge in LGPS.

David Atterbury joined HarbourVest in 2004. He is currently head of the firm’s London office and co-leads the firm’s secondary investment activity in Europe. During his tenure, David has led a number of European secondary transactions, including Absolute Private Equity and SVG Capital plc. David serves on a number of European fund advisory boards.

David joined HarbourVest after five years with Abbey National Treasury Services Plc, where he was Director of Private Equity. His responsibilities at Abbey National included the development of a direct private equity portfolio and the subsequent disposal of a large diversified portfolio of partnership commitments and direct holdings. His previous experience also includes five years with PricewaterhouseCoopers, which included a one-year assignment to Bridgepoint Capital in London.

David received a BSc (with honors) in International Management and French from the University of Bath in 1994, and completed professional examinations in 1997 to qualify as a Chartered Accountant.

Bola is currently working with a Local Authority assisting in the management of Pension Fund Investments, loans and cashflows having previously worked with a Local Authority and a private Pension Fund Administration Company for 10 years. Here she was responsible for assisting in the management of funds of some £750 million in one organisation and over £1.3 billion in another with over 45 institutional fund managers and investment banks.

Bola is an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (ACMA) and also runs a consultancy business specialises in helping SME (small to medium enterprises), Social Enterprise and Start ups to improve efficiencies in their business practices. Her expertise includes fund management. performance analysis, risk analysis, strategy and business planning, budgeting and forecasting, financial and management accounts preparation and independent review of accounts.

Stephen has led the OneSource Shared Service for Newham LBC, Havering LBC and Bexley LBC for the last six years. OneSource provides shared back office support services for local government and other public services.  Prior to this he was the Corporate Finance Manager at the London Borough of Newham.