James Phillips is Deputy Editor at Professional Pensions. He joined the magazine in 2016 as a Correspondent, before being promoted to Senior Correspondent in 2018, to News Editor in January 2019, and then to Deputy Editor in August 2019.

James has a focus on the law and regulation of occupational pension schemes in the UK. He is also interested in pension scheme investing in an ESG-conscious way, as well as the de-risking process for defined benefit schemes.

In 2019, James received the Trade Pensions Journalist of the Year award from Willis Towers Watson. In 2018, he was named the Society of Pension Professionals' Trade Pensions Journalist of the Year, as well as a gold winner at the MHP 30 to Watch awards. He was also shortlisted for the Headline Money Pensions Journalist of the Year Award (B2B) in both 2018 and 2019.

James gradated from City, University of London in 2016 with an MA in Newspaper Journalism, and from the University of Birmingham in 2015 with a BA in Political Science and Philosophy.

He has previously been published by The Guardian, The Independent, The i Paper, The Times, and BusinessGreen.

Julie joined Kempen as a Director in 2019. Her primary focus is talking to pensions scheme Trustees about all aspects of their investment strategy; helping them exploit opportunities to increase return, reduce risk (or both) in their DB or DC schemes. Julie has spent over 20 years working with DB, DC and international pensions schemes both in-house (with the Coal Pension Schemes) and for 12 years with Willis Towers Watson as a senior investment consultant.

Jules holds an MA (Hons) in Economics from the University of Edinburgh.

Ashu has worked with many boards of trustees and sponsors of pensions schemes on optimising their journey plans to self-sufficiency or buyout. Ashu joined Clara as he believes Clara takes innovative journey plan optimisation to another level and can improve security for members and provide certainty for sponsors, all at a lower cost.

Ashu has 25 years’ experience in the pensions market, including at WTW, where he worked as both a Scheme and Corporate Actuary. While at WTW, a project led by Ashu won the Professional Pensions Pension Scheme Trustees of the Year Award and Pension Age Best Risk Management Exercise Award. While at L&G, a project led by Ashu won the Pension Age Best Risk Management Exercise Award.

Duncan Buchanan is recognised as a leading individual in both the Legal 500 and Chambers directories. After qualifying as a solicitor in 1990, Duncan realised he had a passion for pensions, which he has concentrated on since 1992. His wealth of experience is second to none and he has been an asset since he joined us as a partner in 2006.

Duncan is a former President of the Society of Pension Professionals and a member of the Tax Law Committee of the Law Society of England and Wales. Duncan is APMI qualified and a volunteer adviser for TPAS (the pensions advisory service).

Fiona Frobisher is Head of Policy at the Pensions Regulator with responsibility for producing regulatory strategies, policies and products to help schemes, trustees and employers fulfil their duties and to ensure that TPR’s regulatory objectives are met. Fiona joined Opra (the Pension Regulator’s predecessor) in 2002 before which she worked in the voluntary sector specialising in welfare legislation. Her current priorities are debating the future of trusteeship, developing a new DB funding framework, raising standards of administration and setting clear expectations for standards of governance in all pension schemes

Prash joined the DB Solutions team soon after it was launched in 2012 as a DB pricing actuary. He moved into business development where he’s been responsible for a number of the team's larger transactions. Before joining, he was a pension actuary at AON where he completed his actuarial training. Outside work, his young family and travel are Prash's passions.

Patrick O’Sullivan is a Solutions Manager in Investment Solutions - part of the Portfolio Solutions group at Schroders. Patrick provides solutions for institutional clients with complicated investment goals and challenging constraints resulting from risk-preferences and regulatory considerations. Prior to joining Schroders, Patrick acted as deputy-head for EMEA Pension Solutions and Advisory at J.P. Morgan Asset Management where he worked with UK and European clients – mainly defined benefit pension schemes. He has additional experience in commercial and central banking from time spent with Bank of Ireland Global Markets and the Central Bank of Ireland. He was formerly a tenured lecturer of Finance where his research focused heavily on portfolio selection, risk management and Strategic Asset Allocation.

Patrick has a Ph.D. in Financial Economics from University College Dublin and a First Class undergraduate degree in Financial and Actuarial Mathematics from Dublin City University.

Colin Parnell is an actuary with extensive experience of taking trustees through the journey to buy-out. Colin takes a leading role in the preparation of schemes for the bulk annuity market and the execution of bulk annuity transactions. Colin’s longstanding and regular contact with insurers allows him to understand what attracts insurers to a case in order to obtain the best terms for his clients. Colin has over 15 years of pensions advisory experience and around 50 bulk annuity transactions to his name so he has seen most of the different journeys that can be taken to reach buy-out. Colin has successfully executed many annuity transactions for schemes including a £100 million pensioner only buy-in transaction and a large number of buy-outs for small to medium sized schemes. He works closely with a variety of insurers and achieves very high closure rates on the cases that he takes to the bulk annuity market.

Paul is Deputy Head of Solution Design in the Client Solutions Group. Paul helps lead the team in the design and delivery of investment solutions tailored to address the specific risk and return objectives of Insight’s clients. Prior to joining Insight in September 2010, Paul spent five years at Hewitt Associates as an investment consultant and also four years at PwC. Paul graduated with an MA in Mathematical Sciences from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University in 2001. He holds the Investment Management Certificate from the CFA Society of the UK.

Stephen’s role is to make sure we understand the risks we face and are managing them where possible. He is responsible for the oversight of all risk-related issues, including enterprise and investment risk functions. Stephen leads on the development of strategy and policy around risk management. His team uses financial modelling to look into the future and seek to understand our financial position in the decades to come.

Stephen’s experience Stephen has over 20 years of actuarial and risk management experience at Allianz Insurance, one of the UK’s leading general insurers. As Allianz’s Chief Risk Officer, he had overall accountability for the risk function in the second line of defense. He successfully set up the first comprehensive risk team and implemented its approach to Solvency II.

Stephen is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and a Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary. He holds an MA in Maths and Philosophy from the University of Oxford.