Room151’s LGPS Place-based impact investing Roundtable

Jaswant is the Investment Director – Private Equity at LGPS Central Limited, which he joined in April 2018 at its inception. Jaswant has over 30 years of financial experience working across several disciplines including Audit, Treasury, Management Accounting, Financial Accounting and Investments. He has previously worked at Goodyear (UK) Ltd, Ricoh Ltd and West Midlands Pension Fund, where he joined as the Accountant before moving to lead WMPF’s Private Equity investments. Jaswant has over 20 years experience in private market investments including infrastructure, commodities, private debt and private equity. Jaswant holds a degree in Accounting Studies and is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.

Shane Lanigan is a Portfolio Manager and the Head of European Growth Lending at Beach Point Capital Management. Mr. Lanigan has been in the industry since 1993 with credit experience gained in insurance and banking. Prior to Beach Point he worked at BMS Finance for 10 years as a Portfolio Manager managing their direct lending sourcing, origination and credit operations in Ireland and the UK. Before BMS Finance he worked at Elgin Capital and was involved in sourcing, origination, trading and analysis of leveraged loan transactions for the Dalradian European CLO series of funds. He has also worked for several banks including The Fuji Bank (acquired by Mizuho) and Erste Bank within their credit, leveraged and acquisition finance departments. Mr. Lanigan received a bachelor’s degree in Commerce and a master’s degree in Business Studies from University College Dublin.

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.

Richard has extensive and wide ranging financial, commercial and transformation experience. He is a CIPFA qualified accountant whose career spans both public and private sectors. He previously worked for Southampton City Council, where he was the interim Director of Finance. His other previous roles have included Transformation Director at City of Edinburgh Council, Board Director of a mid-sized technology consultancy, Interim Resources Director at Cornwall Council and Executive Director at Somerset County Council. Prior to these roles, Richard worked in public sector consultancy for KPMG and PwC. As Executive Director Resources, Richard leads EMCCA’s finance, HR, commercial, digital, and business operations. He also plays a key role in developing EMCCA’s financial strategy and its commercial relationships.

Robert joined Pluto in 2018 and has responsibility for managing existing investor relationships and for fund raising.  Since joining, he’s closed Funds VI, VII and VIII and capital raising is ongoing for Pluto’s evergreen lending vehicles and other SMAs.  Prior to Pluto, Robert was in a similar role for eight years at Stirling Square Capital Partners, a pan-European private equity firm, delivering the final close of their Fund II and the entire Fund III.  Prior to that Robert was a Managing Director in the investment bank at HSBC, having worked in both structured and infrastructure finance over a twenty year career at the bank.

Simon Cunnington is Portfolio Manager at Border to Coast Pensions Partnership where he leads on the UK Opportunities portfolio within private markets. He joined from the British Business Bank where he led on the establishment and management of the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II, a £660m fund of funds supporting the growth of smaller businesses across the North of England.

Simon previously qualified as an accountant with Nottinghamshire County Council where he spent 11 years overseeing the Council’s pension fund and treasury investments, gaining extensive experience of managing and monitoring investments within the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).

Simon has a law degree (LLB) from the University of Nottingham.

Paul is a qualified actuary with over 25 years experience in institutional investment. After starting his career in life insurance he moved into investment banking working over a 13 year period at a number of banks on derivative based solutions for asset managers, private banks and life and pension funds. In 2008 he joined the then Watson Wyatt, now Willis Towers Watson as a Senior Investment Consultant. He then went on to join SEI’s fiduciary management business in 2014. In 2022 he took retirement but in early 2023 took a role at West Midland’s Pension Fund  in charge of Investment Strategy for their over £20billion fund.