Geoff is Professor of Collective Intelligence, Public Policy and Social Innovation, at University College London (UCL), starting in the spring of 2020.

Prior to this role, he was Chief Executive of Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation (an endowment that grew in worth to around £450 million) between 2011 and the end of 2019. Between 1997 and 2004, Geoff had roles in the UK government, including Director of the Government’s Strategy Unit and Head of Policy in the Prime Minister’s office. From 2004 to 2011, he was the first Chief Executive of The Young Foundation. He was also the first director of the think tank Demos and has been a reporter on BBC TV and radio.  

Geoff has a PhD in telecommunications and has been a visiting professor at London School of Economics (LSE), University College London (UCL) and Melbourne University. He has also been a senior visiting scholar at Harvard University and President of the Innovation Design Department at the Italian University for Design (IAAD) in Turin. In addition, he has been a regular lecturer at the China Executive Leadership Academy. 

See Geoff’s full bio on his website.

Colin is Group Pensions Director for Associated British Foods plc, the international food, ingredients and retail group. He has strategic and operational responsibilities for retirement provision globally for 140,000+ staff operating in 52 countries.

Colin has regularly been named one of the 100 Most Influential Institutional Investors in the World.

Colin previously held senior roles at Kingfisher plc, where he was again responsible for developing both strategic and operational strategies for the Group’s pension arrangements.

Andrien is a finance, accounting (FCCA), investment (MCSI) and management (MILM) professional with significant experience. In March 2017, he was elected to serve the Ward of Aldgate in the City of London as a Common Councilman. 

Andrien is the Head of Treasury and Pensions at the London Borough of Lambeth. Not too long ago he was advisor to the Minister of Local Government Rishi Sunak (now Chancellor of the Exchequer). 

As  Senior Investment Consultant at JLT, he was responsible for providing long-term strategic investment and governance advice to both public and private sector pension schemes.

Andrien is an eloquent orator and a much sought after public speaker. He mentors a number of students with a keen interest in finance and investments. A traditional family man, he also devotes much of his time to charitable causes.

Rob is the Director of Investment Solutions at Coal Pension Trustees Investment (CPTI). In that role, he leads a small team responsible for implementing investment strategy on behalf of the trustees of the British Coal Staff Superannuation and Mineworkers’ Pension Schemes. The Schemes invest globally across public and private markets. 

Rob has been at CPTI for more than 10 years. Before that, he was a researcher at Mercer and Buck Consultants. Rob was an investment manager, broker and banker earlier in his career.

Mark has more than 30 years of experience in pension fund investment. His current roles include Chair of the Investment Committee at UBS, member of both the Investment & Funding Committee and DC Committee for the Lloyd’s Banking Group Pensions Trust, and member of the Zurich Independence Governance Committee.

Previous roles include the Chief Investment Officer of HSBC Bank Pension Trust (UK) Limited, a hybrid scheme comprising DB and DC sections, as well as a number of senior investment roles at Prudential/M&G. Mark was also a trustee of the Prudential’s UK Pension Scheme. 

Mark has a master’s degree in economics from the London School of Economics.

Joe is the Head of Private Debt, Europe, within Mercer Alternatives, based in London. He is responsible for private debt fund investments — sourcing, evaluating and monitoring private debt opportunities across Europe.

Joe has been in the financial services industry since 2007, focusing on fixed income investments since 2012. He joined Mercer in 2010. Prior to moving into the private debt team in 2020, Joe led Mercer’s research efforts in absolute return fixed income and unconstrained bonds, and was a member of Mercer’s Strategic Research Group. He is a member of Mercer’s Solutions Group, Private Debt Investment Committee and Private Debt Rating Review Committee.

Joe began his career as a broker for ADM Investor Services, where he spent two years broking a wide variety of equity, interest rate and FX derivatives. Following this, he spent a year as an equity analyst for an asset management firm based in Jersey working on an options-based equity strategy.

Joe holds BA (honours) in management studies from Nottingham University, and an MSc in actuarial science from Cass Business School. He is also a CFA® charterholder, and a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Based at global management consultancy Oliver Wyman, Rob is responsible for climate change research and thought leadership across the Marsh & McLennan group of companies, which also includes the investment adviser and fund manager Mercer, the world’s largest insurance broker — Marsh, and the world’s largest reinsurance broker — Guy Carpenter.

Prior to his current role, he was Director of the Energy, Environment and Resources Department at Chatham House and was previously responsible for climate change and economic policy at Oxfam GB. He began his career at Oliver Wyman.

Rob has published widely and held numerous advisory positions on climate, resilience and sustainable development issues, and he was a lead author of the United Nation’s Sixth Global Environment Outlook.

Based in Mercer’s London office, Fran has been with Mercer for seven years. Previously, she worked at another pensions consultancy.

Fran is involved in delivering a broad array of investment advice to her clients, ranging in size from £50 million to £500 million. She supports her clients with advice on a variety of investment-related issues, including pensions risk management, asset allocation, investment manager selection, implementation and monitoring.

Fran’s clients come from a diverse range of industries and have varying outlooks when it comes to pensions. She particularly enjoys getting to know her clients to understand their needs and support them in formulating and achieving their own particular investment goals. Fran aims to build long-lasting trusting relationships with her clients.

Deb is a senior partner in Mercer’s Wealth business. In her role as Global Head of Investment Research, Deb is responsible for manager research and strategic research, and she manages a group of more than 100 asset-class specialists across alternatives, fixed income, equities and real estate. She also oversees the teams responsible for strategic asset allocation, dynamic asset allocation, strategic research and responsible investing. These teams work together to support Mercer’s full range of client solutions, from advisory to fiduciary management. Deb is based in London.

Deb was previously the Global Leader of Mercer’s Equity Boutique, specialising in researching global equity and global emerging market equity managers. Deb chairs Mercer’s Global Policy Committee and is a member of the Mainstream Assets Global Investment Committee.

Deb joined Mercer in November 2005 from Watson Wyatt, where she was a senior investment consultant advising a range of clients and researching Asian and emerging market equity managers. Prior to this, Deb was a fund manager for 20 years, most recently working for Friends Ivory & Sime as Head of Equities.

Deb holds a bachelor’s degree (honours) in business studies from Plymouth University and is an associate of the Society of Investment Professionals, UK. Deb received the 2016 Distinguished Woman Investment Professional of the Year award.

Michael is a principal in Mercer’s Investment Consulting practice. He consults to a number of pension scheme and fund management clients on the full range of investment consulting issues.

Michael also fulfils a number of intellectual capital roles, including membership of the UK Investment Assumptions Team, leading Mercer’s UK Specialist Research Team on bonds and acting as EMEA gatekeeper for the Investments Strategic Research Database. Michael joined Mercer in February 2005 after working for nine years at the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority.

A CFA® charterholder, Michael has a master’s degree in politics and modern history from the University of Edinburgh.

Wayne is a partner in Mercer’s UK Wealth DB Consulting business. He specialises in advising pension scheme trustees and companies on investment strategy and implementation. Wayne provides long-term strategic direction to his clients to manage long-term pension liabilities within a well-defined risk-management framework.

Wayne has over 22 years of experience in the pensions and investment industry. During his time at Mercer, he has worked with many large clients to restructure investment portfolios to both remove unintended risk and allocate capital to attractive return-seeking opportunities. Prior to joining Mercer, Wayne was a director in Deloitte’s Total Reward and Benefits practice and led their London investment consulting business. In this role, he focused on advising some of Deloitte’s largest trustee and corporate clients with complex pensions’ obligations.

Wayne joined Deloitte in 2006 after spending nine years with Hewitt Associates in their Pensions and Investment Advisory practice.

Rich is a partner in Mercer’s Wealth business. In his role as Global Leader of the Equity Boutique, Rich is responsible for equity manager research globally, focused on researching managers across a range of equity universes and geographies. He is based in London.

Rich joined Mercer in March 2008 with seven years of experience, including at Fidelity International, where he provided quantitative fund analysis on internal and external equity funds. He also spent four years at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (now BlackRock), where he was Assistant Vice President of the Information Research Team working on a range of quantitative-based research projects across a number of asset classes.

Rich holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the University of Southampton. He is a CFA® charterholder and holds the Certified Investment Management Analyst® designation from the Investment Management Consultants Association.

Tony is an investment consultant in Mercer’s Wealth business and is based in London. Tony works with a variety of institutional investors, responsible for providing investment and risk management advice, including pension funds (corporate and local authority) and trust funds.

Tony has more than 20 years of investment experience. He joined Mercer in 1999 and has been involved in a wide variety of projects, including investment strategy, manager selections, private markets, ESG policies (including climate change) and pension risk transfer. Tony also regularly facilitates trustee training courses.

Vanessa has over 18 years of experience in the pensions and investment industry. Prior to joining Mercer’s investment consulting business in 2007, she worked as an actuarial assistant in the retirement business. Located in Woking, she spends the majority of her time working on DB trustee client engagements.

Vanessa sits on Mercer UK’s Investment Ideas Group, which focuses primarily on providing structured consulting guidance and client materials on topical investment items.

Vanessa is the Chair of the Association of Consulting Actuaries Investment Committee and is a principal lecturer for Professional Skills for the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. Outside of work, Vanessa is an active member of the Hart Lions Club, which arranges community events and fundraising activities in Fleet, Hampshire.

Jo is a partner and CIO for Mercer’s UK Wealth business. She is an investment consultant for a select number of Mercer’s strategic and/or complex clients.

Jo joined Mercer in 2002 from PwC’s actuarial practice, and after several years as an investment consultant in Mercer’s Liverpool team, she has held a number of client-focused and leadership roles.

Throughout 2017, Jo was Leader for the Liverpool office, and she was responsible for the integration and leadership of the legacy Investment and Funding Teams as Mercer formed its new Wealth business. Jo was also Head of Public Sector, leading the growth of Mercer’s public-sector business and managing strategic client relationships.

Prior to the integration of Mercer’s Investments and Actuarial businesses in late 2016, Jo was a member of the leadership team managing Mercer’s UK Investments business. She also established Mercer’s successful Manchester Investments Team in 2009.

Kirstin is a principal in the Fixed Income Boutique, within Mercer's Investment Consulting business. Kirstin researches bond strategies and assists clients in formulating their strategic allocations within fixed income, selecting managers and monitoring those investments. She leads the London-based fixed income asset class specialists.

After joining Mercer in London in 2007, Kirstin transferred to Sydney, Australia, in December 2010, where her role encompassed both client consulting and manager research. Kirstin relocated to London in 2013 and joined the Bond Boutique.

Prior to joining Mercer, Kirstin worked for Aon Hewitt, initially as a client consultant and then in the Manager Research team. Kirstin has a first-class bachelor's degree in economics and statistics from the University of Exeter. She is a CFA® charterholder and holds the Investment Management Certificate.

Suzanne is a principal in Mercer’s Investments business. She is responsible for leading the research on global and EAFE (global ex-US) equity strategies. In this role, Suzanne prioritises and co-ordinates Mercer’s research of global equity managers around the world and also undertakes primary research herself. Suzanne works with clients from all parts of Mercer’s worldwide business. She is based in London.

Prior to joining Mercer in 2011, Suzanne worked as a fund-of-funds portfolio manager at a small boutique, Investment Solutions. She also has prior experience as an investment consultant. Suzanne has worked in both the UK and South Africa.

Suzanne is a CFA® charterholder and has a bachelor’s degree in industrial psychology.

Jonathan is a researcher within the Manager Research team, within Mercer's Investments business. Based in London, he researches European equity and passive equity.

Prior to joining Manager Research in 2012, Jonathan was a consultant in Mercer's Investments business, where he was responsible for advising clients on the full range of investment-related issues.

Jonathan has over 15 years of experience in the pension and investment industry. Before joining Mercer in January 2008, he worked for Russell Investments in their Investment Strategy and Advice team.

Jonathan graduated from Exeter University with a master’s degree in finance and investment. He holds the Investment Management Certificate.

Andrew is Head of Portfolio Management within the European Delegated Solutions practice and is responsible for decision-making on approximately $50 billion of assets under delegated management. He is Chair of the Asset Allocation Committee and has overall responsibility for equity and fixed income portfolios as well as the dynamic asset allocation investment process for multi-asset portfolios.

Prior to joining Delegated Solutions, Andrew was a consultant on the Fixed Income Manager Research Team. Before that, he was part of the Quantitative Research Group undertaking analysis on dynamic asset allocation (DAA) and intellectual capital projects. He has also worked at Lehman Brothers as a fixed income business analyst and within the treasury department at Motorola Inc.

Andrew is a CFA® charterholder, a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) and holds the investment management certificate (IMC). He graduated with a first-class honours degree in business administration from University of Bath.

Rich is President of Mercer’s Wealth business and a member of Mercer’s Executive Leadership Team. Rich is responsible for Mercer’s delivery of investment consulting, open architecture manager-of-managers investment management, and retirement actuarial consulting services and solutions globally. Over the past 25 years, Rich has provided investment advice to clients in more than 20 countries, including many of the world’s largest institutional investors.

In prior roles, Rich was the President and Global Business Leader for Mercer’s investment management business, global Chief Investment Officer for Mercer’s investment management business and held a variety of other leadership roles while based in Tokyo, Singapore and, later, New York.

Rich holds an MBA (with high honors) in analytic finance and accounting from the University of Chicago and a BA (with honors) in mathematical sciences and mathematical economic analysis from Rice University in Houston, Texas. Rich also did graduate work in international economics at Tokyo University. Rich is a CFA® charterholder and a member of the CFA Institute.

Rich has repeatedly been named to CIO Magazine’s annual list of the world’s most influential investment consultants and received CIO Magazine’s 2017 Industry Innovation Award as Consultant of the Year. Rich is the executive sponsor of Mercer’s Pride business resource group.

Philip is a principal in Mercer's DC & Savings Team. His current responsibilities include the ongoing service and development of the investment proposition for Mercer Workplace Savings™ (Mercer’s delegated DC platform), as well as input into the UK DC Innovation Group and investment advice for a range of DC clients. He is also a member of the MWS Investment Governance Committee.

Philip joined Mercer's UK DC team in 2014. He previously worked in Mercer’s Investment business, which included three years in Mercer's specialist DC and post-retirement unit in Sydney, Australia.

He graduated from the University of Warwick with a BSc in industrial economics, is a CFA® charterholder and has passed the UK Investment Management Certificate.

Sylvia is Mercer’s UK CEO and is a member of the leadership team for Mercer’s International region.

Sylvia’s career spans more than 30 years, with experience in the consulting industry (the insurer/asset management provider side), and a background in professional services.

Prior to joining Mercer in 2019, Sylvia spent six years at Prudential Financial, leading existing and developing new strategic C-suite partnerships at the global level. She was most recently the Senior Managing Director for Prudential Client Management. Prior to Prudential Financial, Sylvia spent 26 years at predecessor organisations of Willis Towers Watson. While there, she had leadership roles spanning its retirement business in multiple geographies, including leading the Towers Perrin pension de-risking business and the sales and marketing integration for Retirement North America following the Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt merger.

Sylvia has a BSc in mathematics from Concordia University, Canada, and is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Actuaries and an Enrolled Actuary under ERISA.

Jillian is a principal with Mercer’s Responsible Investment (RI) team, advising super funds and other institutional investors on how to integrate environmental, social and governance factors, sustainability trends, climate change and stewardship within investment processes.

Jillian contributes to new research and integration of responsible investment within Mercer globally, including delegated solutions. She co-authored Mercer’s Investing in a Time of Climate Change report (2015) and The Sequel (2019). Jillian has also presented and written about water and other sustainability issues and helped many boards establish the governance required to balance risk, return and reputation.

Jillian has more than 20 years of financial services experience. She joined Mercer in 2004, transitioning to RI in 2011, including four years in the London office. Prior to Mercer, Jillian spent five years at an Australian multi-manager after beginning her career in teaching.

Jillian holds an MA in development studies, a BA, a graduate diploma in applied finance and investment, and a Diploma of Education from the University of Newcastle and the University of New South Wales, both in Australia.

Nick’s role is to develop Mercer’s strategy for the Wealth Management segment in the UK and Europe and oversee its execution, which includes responsibility for financial advisers, discretionary managers, private banks, platforms and other financial intermediaries.

Nick has more than 20 years of financial services experience, having joined Mercer in October 2018 from Russell Investments, where he led its UK Wholesale & Distribution Partnerships business for 13 years. Prior to this, he spent seven years at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, where he held a number of senior positions.

Nick was educated at the University of Oxford.

Matt joined Mercer in 2007, working first as a client consultant and now serving as a research associate on Mercer’s Strategic Research Team. He is responsible for assisting in all areas of portfolio construction research and has also conducted research into specialist areas such as ETFs and cryptocurrencies.

Prior to joining Mercer, Matt received his undergraduate degree from the University of Oxford and his postgraduate degree from the University of Exeter.

Lucy joined Mercer in April 2007 and is a partner in the Investment Consulting practice. She became a CFA® charterholder in 2006 and has been an Associate of the UK Society of Investment Professionals (ASIP) since 1986.

At Mercer, Lucy provides investment consultancy services to a range of pension fund, foundation and endowment clients. She advises clients on strategy setting, asset allocation, liability management and manager selection. She is a member of Mercer’s Global Dynamic Asset Allocation (DAA) Committee. Lucy is a contributor to the firm’s intellectual capital, particularly in relation to equity markets and responsible investment. She speaks regularly at industry events.

Lucy has a Master of Arts (with honours) in history from Trinity College, Cambridge.

Amarik is Global Head of the Infrastructure Investment Team in Mercer Investments’ Private Markets Group, based in London. He joined Mercer in 2003.

Amarik is responsible for overseeing the sourcing, due diligence and monitoring of infrastructure opportunities, as well as portfolio construction on behalf of Mercer’s clients. He is a member of the Infrastructure Investment Committee.

He began his career with Mercer as a consultant, responsible for advising institutional clients on the full range of investment-related issues, including strategy, portfolio construction and implementation.

Amarik holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Cambridge and is a CFA® charterholder.

Nick is a partner in Mercer’s Institutional Wealth business and is Global Strategic Research Director and a member of the Global Policy Committee. He is responsible for house views in areas relating to multi-asset-class research and portfolio construction, as well as the development of the strategic research agenda. He is based in Sydney.

Nick’s role covers strategic policy decisions for the suite of Mercer funds in the Pacific market. This aspect of his role formally links Mercer’s strategic best ideas and forward-thinking research to building discretionary portfolios, ensuring Mercer’s best ideas are mapped to all clients’ advice and funds.

Prior to joining Mercer in 2006, Nick gained 13 years of experience with Aon Consulting, where he filled a number of roles, most recently as Head of Manager Research and previously as Head of Client Consulting, both in Sydney. Before coming to Australia from the UK with Aon in 2004, he was a senior consultant with primary responsibility for asset-liability-modelling projects.

Nick holds a BA in mathematics from the University of Oxford. He is also a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, London.