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

Ren joined Insight in December 2010 and is Head of Client Strategy and Innovation in the Client Solutions Group. Ren’s primary focus is on the development of bespoke liability-driven investment solutions using both derivative and physical instruments to better meet the de-risking requirements of our clients. Prior to Insight, Ren spent five years at Towers Watson as an investment consultant, providing advice to pension funds on investment strategy, with a particular focus on liability hedging. Ren graduated with a double degree in Applied Finance and Actuarial Science from Macquarie University, Australia. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, Australia and a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in the UK. Ren holds his Series 3 license and is an Associated Person with the National Futures Association.

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.

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.

Stephen is a Partner in Aon’s Risk Settlement Group. He has 20 years’ experience advising both trustee and corporate clients on buy-ins, buyouts and pension scheme wind-ups. He also brings insurer-side experience from his time at Aviva, where he was Head of New Business for bulk annuities, and was key to doubling its market share and increasing volumes of new business by more than 300%. Stephen has led and advised on more than £10bn of bulk annuity transactions including several large, high-profile and complex transactions for a number of FTSE 100 clients. He has also been involved in developing several innovations and transaction features which are now prominent in the wider market today and is a regular speaker at industry events and seminars.

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.