Barnett Waddingham 

Barnett Waddingham (BW) is a leading UK professional services consultancy at the forefront of risk, pensions, investment and insurance. BW builds strong, trusted relationships with a wide range of clients, across the public and private sectors – including 22% of FTSE 100 and 15% of FTSE 350 companies. With a team of more than 1,750 people across 10 offices, BW works to deliver exceptional service through a commitment to trust, integrity, and quality. BW leverages deep expertise to bring innovative solutions, ensuring long-term value for clients through strategic insights and dedicated partnership. 

Hugo Gravell FIA // Speaker
Hugo Gravell FIA
Principal and Investment Consultant
Speaker

Hugo works closely with trustees and sponsors of UK defined contribution (DC) pension schemes in relation to investment matters. He works with both own trust and master trust schemes and is driven by a desire to improve the quality and certainty of retirement outcomes for members. Hugo’s 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 BWs research from a DC perspective, in particular for research into new and innovative strategies (including decumulation and private markets) and sustainable investment.

Marie Blood // Sponsor
Marie Blood
Associate – Employer Consulting
Sponsor

As a DC consultant, Marie works with trustees and employers on all aspects of managing DC pension arrangements, from helping trustee boards remain compliant with their governance requirements to supporting employers manage auto-enrolment audits and pension change projects. She helps clients in understanding their duties and requirements, advising them on how to implement appropriate solutions. Her clients include trustee boards of standalone DC trusts or hybrid schemes, employer governance committees managing master trust or group pension arrangements, and HR, benefits, and reward teams. Marie's main areas of expertise including DC trust governance, scheme wind-ups, provider research and auto-enrolment. Among her experience, she has undertaken secondment to support a client through a large contribution audit exercise and has managed the BW Large DC Schemes Research Team since 2022.

George McLauchlan // Sponsor
George McLauchlan
Senior Investment Client Manager
Sponsor

George McLauchlan is a Senior Investment Client Manager at Barnett Waddingham, responsible for assisting consultants in advising clients on investment matters. George advises a range of clients, including DB & DC pension schemes, and charities, ranging from £10m to £400m AUM. George is a Chartered Associate qualified actuary, with 6 years of industry experience. George specialises in designing, implementing and monitoring investment strategies tailored to clients’ aims, beliefs and constraints. George also runs the day-to-day operation of our Investment DC Provider research team, helping to monitor and rate off-the-shelf provider offerings and upcoming changes.