Members' Panel

Charles is an experienced committee chair and Non-executive Director (NED) with a focus on organisations achieving wider social benefits and inclusion. He is a NED for Coastline Housing and chairs the People and Culture Committee, a trustee for the defined benefit pension schemes of Southern Housing and an independent member of the investment committee of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. He was previously a NED for Cornish Mutual where he chaired the Investment and Capital Management Committee. His executive career included Insight Investment where he was responsible for the insurance investment proposition including post-retirement annuity providers and the retail investment and pensions offerings of Lloyds Banking Group and HBOS.  He started his career with Aviva and is an associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute.

Christopher is Senior Policy Manager at Age UK, the national charity for older people. He leads Age UK’s public policy work on private pensions, employment and skills, which involves representing the interests of consumers and older people to Government, regulators and industry. He also manages a team covering a diverse range of policy issues, including housing, transport and equalities policy. He has worked at Age UK since May 2010. Prior to this he worked at the awarding body City & Guilds, where he managed its Parliamentary and public policy activity, and before that at Lansons, a public affairs agency specialising in financial services.

James is a Nest member and independent consultant with over a decade of experience advising organisations on technology, process and organisation change. He has worked across sectors including financial services, public sector and professional services. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, James worked for a Big 4 consulting firm and in the technology industry. He is passionate about financial education and empowered decision making.

Rachel was previously Policy Manager at ShareAction, a charity established to promote transparency and responsible investment practices by pension funds and other institutional investors. While in this role, she engaged with UK policy makers, responded to consultations and produced briefings on a range of issues relating to the rules governing pension funds, the investment system and corporate reporting. She previously trained as a solicitor in the City of London, gaining experience in pensions and financial services law. Rachel has since re-trained and now practises as a counsellor. Rachel wants to help members of all ages and income brackets to get a good deal for their future, in terms of both their financial outcomes and the world in which they will live.

David has a wealth of auto enrolment experience, having worked at the National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) from 2012 to 2015. As Senior Account Manager, David helped a wide range of employers and intermediaries set up and administer their Nest schemes. David remains a member of Nest, now works closely with payroll software and payroll users at Pensionsync Ltd, to ease the burden of auto enrolment administration. He focuses on automating the delivery of member data from payroll to multiple pension providers through Pensionsync. He holds the PMI Certificate in Auto Enrolment.

Earlier in his career, David worked in various consultant and project manager roles at Aquila Heywood implementing pension administration software for public and private sectors, having started out as a trainee actuary with BBS.

Dominic is a self-employed member of Nest and an independent consultant specialising in pensions, financial services and consumer protection. He has worked for the Financial Services Consumer Panel, Which? and New City Agenda, delivering improvements for consumers including a cap on pension charges and stronger protection against payment scams. Following the introduction of pension freedoms he has written several reports on how consumers can be helped and supported to make better decisions when accessing their pensions. He is a member of the Vanguard Independent Governance Committee, the Financial Reporting Council Advisory Panel and the Pensions Dashboards Programme Steering Group.

Zoe is currently a People and Development Lead at Unifrog, a company committed to levelling the playing field for school leavers. Zoe is a Nest member and additionally worked at Nest from 2020 to 2022. She hopes that by being part of the Nest Members’ Panel she can help members to increase their awareness and engage more with their pensions.

Jules has over two decades experience building partnerships within the financial sector, most recently within workplace pensions and Employee Benefits. Prior to working in the private sector, Jules worked with the TUC on partnerships between employers and trade associations in Financial Services, and was Regional Manager for Financial Capability within the former FSA, and then National Partnerships Manager with the Money Advice Service. She was also involved in the development of employer and member communications prior to the roll-out of automatic-enrolment from 2012, and is passionate about financial education and financial well-being. She has recently contributed to consumer research with Pension Bee, and a keen interest in financial technology and its impact on the pensions industry and member engagement. Jules brings a combination of informed insight from her own life experiences in relation to the barriers to pension savings and the effects on later life, as well as current experience as a Nest member.