Board Members

Brendan was appointed Chair of the Board of Nest Corporation by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions effective 1 February 2022. 

He has been at the forefront of public body collaborations between industry and government. He has also successfully led major transformational strategic change in regulated financial institutions deploying new digital technologies and data analytics. Most recently, he led the transformation and sale of an insurance business for a private equity shareholder, and was CEO (Intermediated and Direct) at AXA Insurance UK plc. He was also the founding CEO of Flood Re Ltd, an innovative Public Body venture between the government and the insurance industry. He is a non-executive director of NPA Insurance Limited. 

A qualified accountant, Brendan is also a Trustee of two registered charities – Blueprint for Better Business, which encourages companies to be a force for good in society, and the Catholic Dioceses of Salford – for many years.

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Ian was appointed as Interim CEO of Nest Corporation on 1st May 2024.

Ian has 25 years’ experience working in financial services. He was a Group Board Director at Skipton Building Society from 2012 to 2023 where he held positions of Commercial & Strategy Director for 10 years and then Interim Group CEO. Prior to his time at Skipton Building Society Ian has held senior leadership roles at Homeloan Management Limited, Virgin Money, Bradford & Bingley and Capital One.

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Myfanwy has served as a non-executive director at The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) since 2021. She is a qualified accountant (CPFA) and her executive career was in public finance. She was Corporate Director of Finance at Harrow Council and Managing Director of Corporate Services at the House of Commons. She has experience leading a wide range of services, including the MPs’ pension scheme and the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), as well as strategic planning, people and portfolio management.

Myfanwy is currently also a Director of Plumbing Pensions (UK) Administration Ltd, Senior Independent Board Member at Ocean Housing Group, Trustee/Treasurer of Morrab Library and Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, and a member of two Tate Committees.

In 2018 she was awarded the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, Companion (CB).

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Karen is Professor of Augmented Intelligence, Digital Transformation and Design at Kingston Business School. Here, she heads up 'The BRAINS Lab' with behavioural scientist, Professor Gealle Vallee Tourangeau, an interdisciplinary unit dedicated to an inclusive, ethical and sustainable digital future. Karen’s research concerns designing for persuasion, emotion, and trust, and she specialises in the digital transformation of values at scale and ethical practice.  
 
Her previous role at the University of Brighton was professorial lead for Connected Futures research and enterprise, which included digital economy, digital health, complex systems and immersive, simulation and virtualisation. As part of this, she was also academic lead of the Digital Catapult Centre Brighton and the 5G Brighton project, part of the government’s 5G strategy. 

Karen is an internationally recognised expert in user experience design and engineering behaviour change. She has worked in e-commerce, fintech, health and care, arts and heritage, games, e-learning, military and defence. In her 28-year career in human-centred design and build her clients have included PlayStation, Diesel, ITV, Topshop, Which?, Ernst & Young (EY) and ?What If! Innovation. 

She is a fellow of the RSA, the royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce. 

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Sarah is a seasoned non-executive director who brings experience in financial services, pensions, government, and data and digital to her role on the Board.

She serves as a non-executive director of United Trust Bank and Local Pensions Partnership Investments. Sarah is a member of the Board of Advisors of data.world, a cloud-native enterprise data company, and a past director of CG Pension Trustees Ltd, the trustee for Citi (UK) Pension Plans. She also served a five-year term as a Civil Service Commissioner, chairing open recruitment competitions for senior posts in the civil service for HM Government. Sarah was previously an executive at Citigroup, managing businesses across developed and developing markets. She is an Ambassador of Women on Boards UK.

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Richard has been part of Nest Corporation’s executive team since 2014. From the controls environment to the culture, he has been involved in helping us to mature from a start-up to one of the UK’s biggest workplace pension providers. He initially managed the finance and procurement teams. Over time, he has added people and development, IT and facilities, internal communications, and central change into his remit, while also becoming Deputy CEO. 

As executive champion for diversity and inclusion, Richard has led a programme of work that is helping to increase staff awareness of, and openly discuss and tackle, biases and barriers. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Diversity Project, a cross-company initiative working to create a more inclusive culture in the financial sector.

Richard is a chartered management accountant. His career over the last 30 years includes roles in a number of blue-chip UK retail and consumer product companies including Home Retail Group plc, BAA plc, Kingfisher plc, Whitbread plc and BP plc.

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Martin has 37 years’ experience working within the financial services industry in companies such as Barclays plc and Lloyds Banking Group plc. He has had a broad range of roles, both in the UK and overseas, ranging from front-line customer service and relationship management through to strategy and transformation and IT and operational service delivery.

More recently, he has had group-level accountabilities in the second-line risk function including operational risk, regulatory compliance, internal risk reporting and external risk disclosures. This has included overseeing significant structural reform programmes driven by regulatory and legislative requirements.

Martin retired from full-time executive roles at the end of 2016. He is currently a non-executive director and trustee with AQA Education, where he chairs the audit, risk and compliance committee. 

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Nina has had a diverse 25-year career with leadership roles in the public, regulatory, corporate and charity sectors. Her executive career was largely in financial services and includes ten years advising UK and global financial services organisations, followed by ten years in senior roles at the UK’s financial regulator, including as Chief of Staff and Principal Private Secretary to the Chair during the global financial crisis. After leading the establishment of the Financial Conduct Authority, Nina undertook a six-month secondment to Age UK to inform the strategy of placing consumer needs at the heart of the new regulatory mandate, which laid the groundwork for the regulatory focus on vulnerable customers. Since 2015, Nina has focused on a non-executive career and has sat on several Boards in the public and private sectors. She currently serves on the Boards of National Savings & Investments, and an NHS Foundation Trust.

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Helen has over 30 years’ experience in financial services, initially in fixed income capital markets, followed by an extensive career in institutional asset management focusing on investments for UK pension funds. She has worked for several global investment firms including Deutsche Asset Management, Invesco Perpetual, AllianceBernstein and State Street Global Advisors, in addition to a boutique equity hedge fund. Helen currently serves as a non-executive director on the Pension SuperFund (PSF) Holdings and PSF Sponsor boards. She is a Trustee for the Rifles Regimental Museum Trust and is a Trustee and Chair of the Investment Committee for DHL (UK) Foundation overseeing the Foundation’s portfolio of assets.

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Focusing on driving customer-centric culture in organisations, Nikki has had a successful leadership career in financial services spanning thirteen years, including ten years in the mutual sector, interspersed with seven years as a senior civil servant in the public sector. She has covered a broad range of roles within her career including marketing, digital transformation, and communications. She also spent several years as a Trustee for a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving the way people are cared for and supporting staff who deliver care and is currently a non-executive director at Penrith Building Society and an executive coach.

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Michael brings over a decade of experience as a non-executive director, advisor, and trustee in the investment management and retirement savings sector, alongside more than 30 years of executive expertise in governance, oversight, and leadership within investment management both in the UK and internationally. Presently, Michael serves as an independent director for Yarra Capital Management, which handles investments for superannuation funds and family offices. Since 2021, he has been an advisor to the Investment Committee and Manager of the Square Peg Global Technology Fund. He also holds the position of Investment Committee Chair for an international family office.

Previously, Michael was the CEO of Perpetual Investments and held Chief Investment Officer roles at Fidelity International, BNP Paribas Investment Partners, and Schroders Australia. His experience as a non-executive director also includes serving on the Board and chairing the Investment Committee of Total Risk Management Pty. Limited, a subsidiary of Russell Investments that acts as the trustee for the Russell Investments SuperSolution Master Trust, a successful Australian defined contribution superannuation fund.

Since 2008, Catherine has been serving as the Chief Executive of ShareAction, a UK-registered charity that advocates for sustainable investment and business practices worldwide. Additionally, she is a member of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Sustainable Finance Committee and HM Treasury's Asset Management Taskforce. Her previous roles include serving on the Boards and Investment Committees of TPT Retirement Solutions (formerly known as The Pensions Trust) and the Scott Trust, which owns The Guardian Media Group. She also founded West London Citizens, a network engaged in addressing social and economic issues, and was the Lead Organiser for the Living Wage Campaign. 

Catherine holds the PMI Award in Pension Trusteeship and was recognised as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2014. She also received an OBE in 2022 for her 'services to sustainability.

Faith is a recognised consumer expert with significant experience in financial services, consumer engagement, data, and regulation. She currently serves as a non-executive director at Fair4All Finance, promoting financial inclusion through dormant asset distribution. Faith advises the board at TISA (The Investing & Saving Alliance) and recently led ground-breaking research with its members to make investing more inclusive and improve consumer communications. She is the Advisory Board Chair at INFINITY, which aims to catalyse the next generation of university-inspired financial technology commercialisation ventures and the current Advisory Board Chair for UKFin+ which funds academic research collaborations on complex financial services issues using technology. Faith is an expert in Open Banking and Smart Data and is a member of the Advisory Panel for the Electralink Board.

Most recently, Faith was a non-executive director at the Payment Systems Regulator and led strategy and research at tech start-up Amplified Global. Previously, Faith was an Independent Consumer Representative for the Open Banking Implementation Entity, an independent director for Pay.UK's Current Account Switch Service, and a member of the Authorised Push Payment Scams Advisory Group. She also served on the FCA’s Financial Services Consumer Panel for a number of years, and initiated Toynbee Hall's financial inclusion efforts earlier in her career.

Howard is an experienced actuary with more than 35 years in the insurance industry, holding various risk management positions. His latest role was Interim Chief Risk Officer at Direct Line Group, and he previously served as Chief Risk Officer for Lloyds' Insurance & Wealth division. At Lloyds, he also held roles such as Financial Risk Director and Solvency II Programme Director, dealing with strategic, operational, regulatory, climate-related issues, and M&A activities. Currently, Howard is an Advisory Board Member for the Regulatory Standards and Codes Committee of the Financial Reporting Council.

Howard began his career as a consultant at Tillinghast (Willis Towers Watson – now WTW) and held senior positions at Aegon / Scottish Equitable. Alongside his Board and Executive roles, Howard has also served on the Audit and Risk Committee of his local council.

Stuart has over 25 years of executive experience in the investment management industry and currently serves as a Board Director of HSBC Global Asset Management Ltd., the £550 billion asset manager of the HSBC Group. Stuart is a member of the Executive Management Committee and Risk Management Committee, and oversees the firm’s global diversity, equity, and inclusion programme. Stuart is also the CEO & Board Director of HSBC Global Asset Management (UK) Ltd., managing around £150 billion in assets.

Stuart has spent the last 10 years as a Trustee Director of the £37 billion HSBC Bank Pension Trust (UK) Limited (the hybrid defined benefits and defined contributions pension scheme of the HSBC Group), where he chaired the Investment Committee.
Joining HSBC in 2010, Stuart has held roles such as Global Head of Strategy & Chief of Staff, and CEO, International for HSBC Global Asset Management. Previously, he spent five years at Insight Investment and began his career at Threadneedle Asset Management in 1998. 

Stuart holds an MBA from London Business School, the CFA Investment Management Certificate, the CFA ESG Investing Certificate, and the PMI Award in Pension Trusteeship. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Asset Owner Diversity Charter, the Advisory Council of the UK's Diversity Project and the Advisory Council of the UK’s Investment Association and their Trade & Investment Committee.