Employers' Panel

Ron is Chair of the Employers’ Panel, Chair at LPPA (who administer pension schemes for local government, police and fire schemes across the country) and Chair of Tempo Time Credits (a charity who work with local communities across the UK to make positive societal changes powered by volunteering). Ron has also held a number of other Trustee and Non-Exec roles, prior to which he had a 30+ year commercial career in Procurement and Supply Chain leadership roles.

Emma is Managing Director of CE Back Office Limited, an outsourced payroll bureau based in Cheshire. Emma’s payroll experience started within the temporary labour sector. CE Back Office specialise in managing payroll for workers who are paid by the hour dealing with SMEs within care, construction, engineering, hospitality, recruitment and retail sectors. Emma first became involved with Nest back in 2014 and regularly uses Nest with the majority of her client base choosing Nest as their pension provider.

Ann Fraser is Head of Pensions at the University of Edinburgh. The University of Edinburgh administers many public and private sector pension arrangements, both Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution, and is a supporter of Nest with approximately 1,800 actively contributing members. Ann is Secretary of the University’s in-house defined benefit scheme which has a market value of around £530m, and she manages the external advisers as well as ensuring the Scheme’s investments remain within their strategic allocations. Ann also sits on the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) Institutions Advisory Panel where she represents the employer in relation to USS policy, procedure and practice. Ann is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

Tim Gibbs is Finance Director for Loomis UK Limited, having joined the Company in 2008. Tim has previously held roles at PwC as Audit Manager and Egg PLC as Finance Reporting Manager and is a chartered accountant. Tim has management responsibility at Loomis UK for all pension matters including the management of the Defined Benefit section of the Loomis UK Pension Scheme which was closed to new joiners from 2001 and from future accrual in 2013. Tim also has experience from a Trustee perspective having been a Trustee and Chairperson of the Loomis UK Pension Scheme up until 2012. Loomis UK supports Nest and chose the Scheme as its pension scheme provider, as part of the implementation of Auto Enrolment in 2013.

Tim passionately believes in the ensuring that all employees are given access to a good quality pension scheme, which is also cost effective from an Employers’ perspective. He sees improving employee and member pension communications and engagement as a key challenge for employers, to ensure that all employees make positive and informed choices about their future in line with their individual aspirations and plans.

Liz is Head of Pension at Saint-Gobain UK & I overseeing the benefits of over 30,000 scheme members. She has had a long career spanning over 20 years within the public and private sector service industries. Liz also has prior experience within the manufacturing and industrial engineering industries and has worked for companies such as Sodexo UK & I and Serco PLC as their Head of Pensions. Liz is well respected within the pension industry and has worked with forums such as the BSA, Cabinet Office Strategic Working Group for Civil Service Pensions, the Railways Pension Scheme and the PMI Development Committee. Liz is a member by experience of the Pension Management Institute. Liz first became involved with NEST, then PADA, in developing the current product of employer interfaces.

Sharon Lawn has worked in finance for over 30 years and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).  She has held several roles, most recently as Group Financial Controller for Spicerhaart Group Limited, a family run business which was founded in 1989 and is now the UK’s largest independent Estate Agency group, providing a broad range of property related services.  Prior to this she headed up the Management Accounting function at Britvic Plc and in her early career gained several years of experience in both external and internal audit across various industries.

Sharon is passionate about later life planning and the importance of pension provision as a key contributor to financial wellbeing.  She first became involved with Nest in 2012 when, together with the Head of HR, she was responsible for the implementation of auto-enrolment at Spicerhaart and chose Nest as the group’s pension scheme provider for approximately 1,600 employees.

Ed is a Nest employer with over 25 years of executive and non-executive director experience in financial services in New York and London, primarily in investment banking and asset management. He has served in global, bulge-bracket investment banks, Salomon Brothers and Credit Suisse First Boston, where he developed an expertise in the origination, structuring, execution and funding of vanilla as well as esoteric asset-backed securities (“ABS”). Following that he ran several funds investing in ABS, most recently with Janus Henderson Investors. Ed’s current role is the Executive Director & CFO, Founder and Entrepreneur of three local SMEs in a particularly disadvantaged area of the UK having the goal of increasing the quality of services and product offerings of the village ‘high street’ to attract more tourism, and thereby provide more jobs, training, and some temporary accommodation for local people. At its peak they were the largest employer in the village (50+ staff).

Sam is the Chief Executive of a small charity in Cumbria which uses Nest for its staff and this led to his interest in Nest as an auto-enrolment savings service. Sam has over 7 years experience in Local Government through elected office and a passion for representing the interests of communities.

Sam has a background in Mechanical Engineering and Project Management having worked on large UK Defence programmes and managed large programmes of work and staff.

Sam also holds board roles with small businesses and charities including a Business Improvement District in a vibrant Cumbrian festival town and a Wind Energy Cooperative, which operates a small wind farm. Sam is keen to represent small employers and particularly those in the third sector, through his work with Nest, aiming to offer the experience of these smaller employers to benefit both the Next organisation and its users.

Jim Ross is the Head of Pay and Pensions at the University of Glasgow. The University of Glasgow is a strong supporter of Nest with a current membership of 2641 members. Jim has been employed by the University since 2001 and has been involved in the pay and pension industry for over 30 years. Jim is both a Trustee and Secretary to the Trustee Board for the University of Glasgow’s in‐house defined benefit pension scheme (UGPS) and is the principal point of contact for the eight investment managers who provide investment solutions for this £400M Scheme. He is also a member of the Scheme’s Investment Sub‐Committee. In his role as Payroll Manager, Jim represents the University at British Universities Financial Director’s Group (BUFDG) where he is the Scottish Chair of the Pay & Expenses Group. Jim is a Fellow of the Charted Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP).

Sujal Shah is a Chartered Accountant and the founder of Coral Accountancy Ltd. Coral Accountancy offers a wide range of accountancy, business advisory and tax services to clients, including payroll services. Nest has consistently been the preferred choice of pension provider for both the practice and its employer clients due to its ease of use and cost effectiveness. As a small business owner herself, Sujal is particularly passionate about facilitating auto enrolment compliance for micro and small business owners, ensuring they act in the best interests of their employees without imposing an undue burden on them. She understands the many challenges these employers face in managing their businesses while remaining compliant with regulations. 

Rachel has worked in payroll for around 18 years, having achieved her payroll qualification while working as a Payroll Assistant, following completion of a BSc in Geography from the University of St Andrews. Rachel joined Eden Futures as Payroll Manager in July 2024. Eden Futures is an established independent supported living provider celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2024. Eden Futures employs more than 1500 staff and Nest is the main pension scheme. Rachel was previously Payroll Manager at The Orders of St John Care Trust for almost 8 years. OSJCT is a leading not for profit care provider employing more than 4000 staff, and using Nest as the automatic enrolment pension scheme. Rachel’s other experience includes working in Payroll for Oasis Dental Care (now run by Bupa), Immediate Media, Hanson UK and Thomas Cook.

Russell works at Redington where he is a pensions consultant. This role involves advising employers, trustees and pension providers on defined contribution pensions. He previously worked at Hargreaves Lansdown for over 10 years. He held several leadership roles including Head of Workplace Proposition, Head of Workplace Strategic Development, Head of Retirement and Head of Workplace Retirement. Russell holds professional qualifications in regulated financial planning (Chartered Insurance Institute) and professional marketing (Chartered Institute of Marketing). Outside of work, Russell is a Governor at his local primary school and was a Trustee for a childcare charity for over 10 years where he set up a Nest pension for the charity’s staff. Russell’s interests and areas of expertise include retirement savings adequacy, retirement options, pensions communications and financial wellbeing.