Board Members

Brendan has been in the role as Chair of Nest since February 2022 and has a five-year term. He is focused on preparing Nest to be ready for growth and becoming a £100bn Master trust by 2030, guided by a clear strategy and purpose, and has set the organisational goal of becoming 'Best in Class.' He is also Chair of Leeds Building Society (a £35bn mutual). Brendan was the founding CEO of Flood Re (a Public Body), the UK’s solution to household flood insurance market failure and has been CEO of various large and complex insurance businesses, in a 40-year career.

He is a Trustee of Blueprint for Better Business, a charity working with FTSE100 businesses on the power of having organisational Purpose and encouraging business to be a force for good in society. He is also a Trustee of a large church-based charity based in Salford addressing homelessness and poverty. He is a qualified accountant and lives with family in Warrington, in the northwest of England.

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Ian was appointed as 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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Louise joined as Interim CFO on 14 March 2025 which was made permanent in June 2025. She was appointed to the Board effective 1 April 2025.

Louise has 26 years’ experience working in financial services. Most recently she was CFO at British Arab Commercial Bank (BACB), a UK bank delivering trade finance and investment expertise to clients in African and Middle Eastern regions. In this role, Louise held the Regulatory SMF2 position, Senior Accounting Officer responsibility, Pension Board Trustee role and was Head of the Finance and Treasury Functions for the bank.

Prior to her time at BACB, Louise held senior roles in finance, treasury, risk and regulatory at various capital markets institutions including Daiwa Capital Markets, JP Morgan, Bear Stearns and Credit Suisse. These institutions allowed Louise to gain experience across a range of different cultures, markets, financial instruments, regulatory landscapes, stakeholder groups and commercial strategies.

Myfanwy has served as a non-executive director at The Pensions Ombudsman (TPO) since 2021. She is a qualified accountant (Chartered Public Finance Accountant), 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 Member of Parliaments’ 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, and a Trustee Director of Shelter and the Whitechapel Gallery.

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Karen is Professor of Augmented Intelligence, Digital Transformation Design in the Foresight, Creativity & Decision Making Research Hub, Dept. Strategy, Marketing & Innovation at Kingston Business School. She heads up ‘The BRAINS Lab’ with behavioural scientist, Professor Gaelle Vallee Tourangeau, an interdisciplinary unit dedicated to an inclusive, ethical and sustainable digital future. Her previous role at the University of Brighton was professorial lead for the Connected Futures, a fifth of the University research and enterprise strategy which included digital economy, digital health, complex systems and immersive, simulation and virtualisation. As part of this, she was academic lead of the Digital Catapult Centre Brighton and their '5G Brighton' project, a named part of the UK government’s 5G strategy and the first 5G testbed off a research site aimed at small businesses. 

Karen sits on UK5G and is part of the UK Telecoms Innovation Network. Karen is an expert in user experience design and designing for behaviour change. Her research concerns designing for persuasion, emotion and trust, and she specialises in the digital transformation of values at scale and ethical practice. 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?, EY and ?What If! Innovation. 

She is a fellow of RSA The royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce and a Women in Games Ambassador as part of Google Women TechMaker.

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Sarah Laessig has 25 years’ experience in financial services across banking, asset management and pensions. She is a non-executive board member of United Trust Bank, a specialist lender, and JP Morgan Global Growth and Income Investment Trust (JGGI), a FTSE 250 listed investment trust. Sarah’s executive banking career at Citigroup included managing businesses across developed and developing markets. She has worked around the world in Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Sarah has previously been a Civil Service Commissioner. She is an Ambassador of Women on Boards UK.

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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 of the Financial Services/ Conduct Authority 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, an NHS Foundation Trust, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

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Helen has over 30 years’ experience in the pensions and investment industry, initially in fixed income capital markets, followed by an extensive career in institutional asset management, focusing on 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 has considerable experience working with defined contribution pension plans, their underlying investment structures and development and is a long-standing advocate of putting pension members’ interests first. 

In addition to her role at Nest, Helen currently works as a Non-Executive Director of InvestAcc Holdings Limited, a specialist SSIP and SSAS administration business and a Trustee and Chair of the investment committee for DHL (UK) Foundation, overseeing the Foundation’s portfolio of assets. She is also a special advisor to Catella APAM’s real estate investment trusts fund. Helen previously served as Chair of the Pension SuperFund (PSF) Holdings and PSF Sponsor boards and a Trustee for the Rifles Museum Regimental Trust.

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Nikki brings over 20 years of senior leadership experience across financial services and the public sector, with a strong track record of championing customer-focused transformation. Her career includes 13 years in financial services, 10 of which were in the mutual sector, and 7 years as a senior civil servant. She has held a range of senior executive roles spanning marketing & communications, digital transformation, and customer experience, with a consistent focus on embedding customer-centric culture within organisations. 

Nikki is currently a non-executive director at Penrith Building Society and a qualified executive coach. She is also the co-founder of a tailored coaching programme designed to support aspiring non executive directors on their journey to board readiness. In addition, she previously served as a trustee for a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to improving care delivery and supporting those working in the care sector. 
Her breadth of experience across sectors and functions brings valuable insight and strategic challenge to the Board.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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