What do you do?

As an Analyst, I work as part of the project teams to deliver quality solutions to clients. I have worked on a variety of pension projects at Muse, and have built expertise in pensions management, adviser selection and trustee governance.

Recently I have worked with trustees to manage succession planning and facilitated a survey on trustee remuneration practices. The majority of my work has involved the selection of outsourced providers, be that pensions management, secretarial or investment consultants.

What is your background?

My work at Muse Advisory has evolved, alongside with the business, over the last eight years! I hold a BSC in Psychology, and started my career within human resources gaining CIPD along the way.

My time in HR and Reward has meant I have been able to develop my interpersonal and facilitation skills, and have learnt to navigate the vast cultural chasms between companies! I have a wide range of experience from a building society merger to the implementation of a global performance management system.

My appointment as Pensions Governance Manager came as a baptism of fire following an acquisition, but it definitely stoked my interest in the pensions industry.

What do you bring to Muse?

Resourcing and performance management remain of particular interest to me. The skills I built in these roles means I have seen what works well, or not so well. I bring strong organisational skills and a fresh perspective to projects. To me, success is to find practical solutions to the challenges that UK pension schemes face.

What do you do for fun?

When I have free time at home I can usually be found in the green house or walking the dog. I also like to spend time in Cornwall or Spain with my family – relaxing with a Cornish ice cream or una cerveza!

I frequently consider promoting myself to team umpire, but can still be found hurling a hockey stick around the field! There are a few goals to be scored yet!

What do you do?

I joined Muse as a Senior Associate since 2012, and have focused on administration-related projects, supporting Trustees through important change. Specifically I have project managed administration selection and transition projects as well as supporting a large data rectification exercise.

In addition to managing a range of stakeholders (and personalities!) and work-streams, my role has been to provide challenge and guidance throughout the projects.

What is your background?

I started my pensions life as an administrator in the pre-Maxwell, pre-computerised 1980s. Since then, I have worked as a Pensions Manager supporting schemes through significant change, including in-sourcing, changing administration systems and introducing new schemes.

Before joining Muse I was working in the Cabinet Office as Head of Civil Service Pensions, setting up new governance arrangements and then leading the client side of the move to a mutual joint venture for administration.

What do you bring to Muse?

I've been a client, and I worked with consultants. I bring the different view from that side of the fence, and can see things from the client's perspective.

I also bring a combination of calm common sense and humour to my work. Well, at least, I like to think so! Anyway, there's always my love of spreadsheets, which comes in handy.

What do you do for fun?

I love to be outdoors which is lucky as my dog is also a fan of fresh air. We are currently being trained in agility, although I think he is mastering it more quickly than I am. We also like to go geocaching; a combination of rambling and treasure hunting. And my husband and I are attempting to tame our allotment and grow our own vegetables.

When I find myself stuck indoors I enjoy cooking (and eating!), knitting and learning French although not necessarily all at the same time.

What do you do?

My work is varied; from trustee effectiveness reviews, facilitated workshops and risk management to reviews of the DC market and provider selection exercises. Managing projects is something I like to do and I have managed them on both sides of the fence, which gives me a good perspective on what clients want.

What is your background?

I became an international employee benefits consultant with Mercer in 1999. My language skills were useful, having lived in Germany. I helped multinational companies design and implement their employee benefit structures, choose the right providers and communicate with employees. I have led benefit audits, multinational pooling implementation and global governance and risk management projects.

From global, I moved to local and became heavily involved in UK-specific pensions and trustee governance as the Pensions Act 2004 came into force.

What do you bring to Muse?

My get up and go. A former colleague once described me as a “completer finisher”, someone to depend on to get the job done. I am a perfectionist in nature and if I’m doing something, I will do it to the best of my ability and make sure it meets, and ideally exceeds, expectations. I have a thirst for learning (I’m doing a physics degree in my spare time) which means I like to challenge and push the boundaries.

What do you do for fun?

I love the outdoors. In the day time, you might find me horse riding, walking my dog and trying to entice my children to come along. My passion is amateur astronomy, so at night, I’ll be found in the garden, eyes glued to the sky.

I love art and have dabbled at Chelsea School of Art only to realise that my enjoyment lies in painting for pleasure. I'm also vice chair of the governing body of a school. Being a governor has made me appreciate the time and energy that trustees need to commit to do a good job!

What do you do?

I am an Office Manager, Executive Assistant, Projects Co-ordinator and General Adviser on many matters! One of my many responsibilities is to ensure the smooth running of our Hemel office and team. With Hemel as our prime location, I do need to make sure that the team continues to run as the well-oiled-machine it already is.

When the opportunity lends itself, I do enjoy being part of our client project teams. I am biased, but you will not find better people elsewhere!

What is your background?

In the mid-nineties I joined the Shareholder Value team in PricewaterhouseCoopers. I left in the early noughties to join the e-Business team in Mercer, working directly for Avgi. I guess I must have done something right: she wanted me back after all these years!

What do you bring to Muse?

Over 20 years’ worth of experience in the professional services industry (working with some real characters!), which required a lot of stamina and a good sense of humour!

What do you do for fun?

I am heavily involved in a local, New Frontiers church, where among many things, I can be found stretching my vocal chords and/ or practicing my guitar skills; and not just on Sunday mornings.

I also attend local High Intensity Interval Training classes and layer those with more mellow Pilates classes during the week.

And when not going baking mad, you could also spot me in the deep forests of the Czech Republic, testing my Mycology knowledge. I am definitely more of a bolete than a stinkhorn kind of girl. And yes, they are all edible, but some of them only once!

What do you do?

I specialise in advising clients on pension administration effectiveness, strategy and governance. As part of this I help clients to assess administration issues and options, select providers, review pension operational capabilities and technology options, and in the management and oversight of implementing change.

What is your background?

I spent about 12 years in in-house pension management; initially in administration but broadening into technology, trustee secretarial and scheme management. Part of my time in this area was spent specifying and implementing highly automated internally developed pension systems including solutions for the early days of DC - I still bear the scars!

This experience led me to a role with a pension software house with responsibility for client and implementation management and product development. It was my first commercial role which was a shock to the system but from which I learnt a great deal.

The combination of my earlier roles gave me the skills and experience to work in the areas I now specialise in. I have worked as a senior consultant with Mercer, as Director of PWC’s pension management consulting practice and in client management at Hewitt with responsibility for the commercial relationships and service delivery for some of their largest outsourcing clients.

What do you bring to Muse?

I would like to think I bring a bit of humour (!), alongside broad experience and a pragmatic approach. I have a good understanding of both client and supplier perspectives from my ‘game-keeper, turned poacher’ background and I am analytical in my approach, using this to focus on what really matters in any project or administration-related issue.

What do you do for fun?

I am regularly pulled around the countryside by a very energetic chocolate Labrador, often grasping my camera and attempting to improve my photography. I am a keen follower of a number of sports including rugby union, motor sport and football (though some would say Birmingham City FC don’t really fit this description!).

I have a wide taste in music, love to read, mainly espionage and British history, and I also play a bit of chess now and again, but since one of my oldest friends is a Grand Master I am all too aware of my woeful capabilities at the board! To ensure I do have fun, I avoid anything to do with DIY, much to my wife’s relief!

What do you do?

Joining Muse as a Senior Associate in early 2015, my responsibilities and role is varied, which I love. I can find myself supporting a client with an administration provider review at one moment and consulting on pension management effectiveness and Trustee governance the next.

What is your background?

I started my career in the Pensions and Reward industry in 2000, progressing through various roles in administration, project management and client service management. Simultaneously I gained my BSc in Economics and Mathematical Sciences, along with various other vocational qualifications including certificates in natural sciences, interior design and I also became an NVQ assessor.

I have also worked at British American Tobacco as a Pensions Project Manager, with responsibilities across provider management, risk reduction, data rectification, communications and governance. After covering maternity leave for the UK Pensions Manager, I also became involved in HR projects and was later promoted into HR as the UK Talent and Organisation Effectiveness Manager.

Of course during this time I continued to study, completing my MBA and CIPD. I left BAT in 2014 and travelled and volunteered overseas as a Teacher of English as a Foreign Language, before joining Muse early 2015.

What do you bring to Muse?

My experience has spanned both provider and in-house management on behalf of Trustee and the employer, giving me insight of the different agendas and challenges facing each. As a life-long learner, I am also adept at assimilating and analysing information quickly. But my real passion lies in helping clients identify, design and implement project and change management solutions.

What do you do for fun?

I absolutely love to travel, explore new places and try new and adventurous activities. My most extreme adventures were tornado chasing in the USA, and a skeleton bob in Lillehammer, although my most recent pursuits are a little less risky and include glider lessons, art classes and cake decorating. I am a runner, albeit perhaps a little too prone to injury, and when I’m fit I also enjoy hiking and generally being outdoors. And of course, I’m still planning on more study!

What do you do?

I am the CEO and co-founder of Muse Advisory. A typical day will comprise a combination of:

• working with Trustees, Pensions Managers, Trustee Secretaries or sponsoring employers in reviewing and enhancing the management, administration and governance of their pension scheme;
• peer reviewing or coaching colleagues to ensure Muse continues to deliver quality work to clients; and,
• challenging what we do and how we can best continue to help the clients and the team to succeed and grow.

What I enjoy most is supporting clients in solving their problems, and leading the team to succeed and grow.

What is your background?

I grew up helping my parents in a shop in Cyprus. It was the best training I could have had on the importance of putting customers first.

Following a degree in Actuarial Science at City University, and an induction into pensions doing actuarial and administration calculations, I gravitated to helping pension managers and trustees reduce risk and enhance effectiveness in the way they manage and oversee pension arrangements. For many years I worked at Mercer where I developed and led their operational transformation and pensions governance practice.

In 2006 I co-founded and set up Muse Advisory. And what a great idea that was!

What do you bring to Muse?

I bring my extensive experience of having worked with many of the UK’s, primarily large, pension schemes and a thorough insight into the governance, administration and pension advisory market. I am a good listener and spot the key issues quickly. Most of all I get a kick out of seeing people develop and clients achieve a successful outcome.

What do you do for fun?

Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) is my main hobby, which I have been practicing for years. Getting to know the Japanese culture is fascinating and playing with flowers is very relaxing. I have a new greenhouse and I discovered a dormant interest in gardening. I also make time for regular trips to Cyprus; it’s a lovely island and a good excuse to recharge Vitamin D supplies.

What do you do?

As the Administrative Assistant, I support the team in pretty much everything, including the practical day to day running of the office in Hemel Hempstead.

What is your background?

My early career was spent at the John Lewis Partnership in Oxford Street on the Junior Circuit Training Scheme. I was also studying for a BEC National Certificate in Distribution at the same time.

After ten years, I took a four year break to bring up my family, but returned to part-time work for Astra Pharmaceuticals in an administrative role.

In recent years, I have been a secretary for an independent Estate Agency, ensuring all administration was carried out to a high standard, and supporting the Sales and Lettings team.

What do you bring to Muse?

I bring my experience and ability to apply a practical approach. My goal is to ensure that the administration and everyday tasks are completed, and that our team of specialist consultants are free to focus on their clients.

What do you do for fun?

I like to spend time with my family and, to relax, I enjoy baking, gardening and attempting to make soft furnishings for my home. To ensure I get some form of exercise, I attend a weekly keep-fit class to keep trim - here's hoping...

What do you do?

I am an Associate Director of Muse Advisory, specialising in investment governance advice and adviser reviews.

What is your background?

Following an Applied Mathematics degree from St Andrews University, I trained as an actuary with Duncan C. Fraser, which was eventually acquired by Mercer. I worked for Mercer in four locations in various roles; I was a Scheme Actuary for many years but ended up leading Mercer’s Scottish investment practice in Edinburgh where I now live.

Outside of Muse, I am an independent trustee of a large DB scheme and a not so large Mastertrust. I am also on the board of a local charity in Edinburgh.

What do you bring to Muse?

I bring a career’s worth of experience of advising trustees and sponsoring employers of typically large, DB pension schemes on actuarial and investment matters. As such I understand what a well governed scheme looks like and can help trustees improve the way their schemes are managed, including effective use of advisers.

What do you do for fun?

I am very keen on sport and generally keeping fit. I play average squash and tennis, and rather below average golf as well as keeping fit by swimming and running regularly. I also enjoy trips to the theatre and cinema with friends and socialising with family.

What do you do?

My job title is Analyst, but I get involved in as much as I can. I support on a range of projects covering governance, administration, adviser reviews, trustee effectiveness, and everything in between!

Internally, I’m responsible for our supplier research and our thought leadership. So, I pen the odd article here and there and send the occasional tweet out into the unsuspecting world.

Outside of Muse, I am a member and Social Committee Chair for the PMI London Group Committee, and a co-opted member of the PMI's Membership and Commercial Development Committee. I am also currently studying towards APMI.

What is your background?

I started out in Mercer’s administration business, before moving into their Governance, Secretarial and Outsourced Pensions Management team in 2011.

My work has covered a wide variety including communications, MND processes, administration reviews, valuation negotiations, adviser selection and review, and business planning and strategy.

What do you bring to Muse?

Well, apart from my wit (and sarcasm!), my practical experience of administration and governance allows me to speak with clients from the perspective of actually having done the work, and knowing how the overall strategy filters done to the ground level.

Since joining Muse in 2013, I’ve built my knowledge on administration, particularly focussing on costs and contracts. I drafted the PMI’s Key Principles to Administration Agreements, and was involved in The Mercury Project cost comparison survey we ran in 2014 for large schemes.

What do you do for fun?

I’m currently grappling with the Spanish language and plotting my return to the cockpit of a Piper PA-28. Other than that, you might find me reading, swimming, ambling around London secretly lost but determined not to appear so, or back in Portsmouth being Uncle to 4 exhausting kids.

I have also recently become a School Governor of a brand new school in Kilburn.

What do you do?

I’m an Associate Director with Muse Advisory and have been involved with the firm since 2009. I major on board effectiveness and governance development, working with a wide range of boards including, with my Muse Advisory hat on, pension trustee boards.

I am also an associate with another independent governance firm, Independent Audit (corporate boards).

Much of my career has been spent with blue chip quoted companies and their boards. This has been fantastic experience which I can apply where it’s relevant in my current work.

Outside Muse, I am also a pro-bono independent trustee role for Crouch End Festival Chorus. If you haven’t heard or seen us perform yet, there are lots of opportunities coming up!

What is your background?

I started after university by qualifying as a chartered accountant at Arthur Andersen & Co and became part of their specialist oil and gas group, which in turn led me to the City. I’ve had three main careers so far in the related worlds of governance, investment and finance. In the ‘governance’ leg I’ve also trained as a coach and qualified on development tools such as Myers Briggs.

I’ve been a board governance advisor now for eleven years. This specialism developed from my earlier career in the institutional investment markets at Warburgs where I created and led the investor relations advisory services for corporate boards within the stockbroking business, and then at Deutsche Asset Management where I advised and worked with institutional pension fund boards as a fund director.

What do you bring to Muse?

What I hope I bring is expertise, a sense of proportion, good client skills and a sense of humour. People say I also make excellent cakes and that I sing well, which is useful when people are hungry and/ or need cheering up.

What do you do for fun?

I love the outdoors and swim in ponds and rivers when I get the chance. My real career of course has been waiting hand and foot on my two children and husband in the hope that they will one day return the favour. Ahem, I’m still waiting…

What do you do?

I specialise in DB & DC pensions, governance (especially funding, investment and risk management), trustee effectiveness, outsourced pensions management, pension management (including administration) strategy and large pension change management projects. I particularly enjoy facilitating trustees to fully articulate their objectives and beliefs and, consequently, to be as effective as they can be.

What is your background?

I’m an actuary and have worked in governance, administration consulting and DC arenas at Mercer and Hymans Robertson. At Hymans Robertson I was a partner, Head of Governance, Risk Group chairman and DC Governance Committee chairman.

What do you bring to Muse?

More than 30 years of financial, pensions and business experience supported with strategic, technical and commercial skill, and a heavy dose of pragmatism.

What do you do for fun?

Bellringing, photography, Lego! And watching F1 with my two (now grown up) sons.

What do you do?

I help our clients run their pension schemes more effectively. That might be leading projects to improve the administration or management of their pension schemes, supporting them in setting the Company or Scheme’s strategy, or just helping them deliver complex projects. As a Director, I also do a lot to promote the business to new prospects and support the day to day management.

What is your background?

There have been three themes to my life in pensions. Firstly, the administration and management of pension schemes – in the dim and distant past I ran the operations for a large Third Party Administrator. Secondly, all things DC – I first got involved in Money Purchase schemes when contracting out was introduced in 1988 so I have seen it grow into Defined Contribution. And finally, Project and Programme Management – I have led all sorts of projects covering administration, valuation and investment aspects of pensions, as well as many wider change and HR projects.

What do you bring to Muse?

A lot of practical experience from having run and been involved in the running of pension schemes, from the very largest in the country to some of the smallest that exist, for getting on for three decades! An ability to engage with stakeholders at all levels, a ‘get-it-done’ attitude, and underneath the playful exterior, a deep understanding of the market.

What do you do for fun?

It’s not always fun, but I am one of the legion of MAMILs that plague the countryside at weekends. For the uninitiated, that’s Middle Aged Man In Lycra. Sorry for that image! I tend to enjoy the rides up to about 65 miles, but it gets much harder after that. The upside is the lovely countryside, the great company and the fabulous coffee and cakes!

What do you do?

I have a dual role within Muse:

• Working with clients in supporting the Muse Project Leaders on a range of projects, to date mainly involved with pensions administration selection and implementations;
• Supporting the management team in various activities including the establishment and maintenance of the client and prospect pipeline activities, consultancy agreements with our clients and anything else which does not have a “natural” home.

What is your background?

My working career started many years ago as a pensions administrator for a large insurance company, Sun Life Assurance. I then moved into the consultancy world providing pensions advice to medium sized companies for Sedgwick Noble Lowndes.

A few years later, my career became internally focused when I was asked to lead various UK and, subsequently, global projects. These included the development, roll-out, adoption and usage of some major business programmes such as a client relationship programme, a sales and marketing database, a client portal and tools for sharing intellectual capital, knowledge and capturing client feedback.

What do you bring to Muse?

Apart from a sense of humour, as an experienced project manager (PRINCE 2 Practitioner), my key skills include planning and organisation, communications, taking the “seed of an idea” and evolving it into a workable solution.

What do you do for fun?

As Mother to a young daughter, my main role outside of work seems to be acting as social secretary, bank manager and taxi driver! My own interests include running a Rainbows unit and being an active member of our local Tangent Group. I enjoy reading and playing tennis, when time permits.

What do you do?

I joined Muse in October 2015 to work on trustee governance and pensions administration projects.

What is your background?

After university, I went straight into pensions. I completed an MBA at Wharton and in my late 20s moved from my country of birth (the US) to the UK. I have trained as an actuary, developed pension systems and managed a FTSE 100 pension scheme. Most of my career has been spent working with clients on all sorts of pensions governance and administration projects, and that's my main interest.

I also work part-time for the Pensions Regulator focussing on public service pensions regulation, and my work at Muse is therefore restricted to private sector pensions.

Outside of work, I am a trustee of a campaigning medical charity that my wife Jane and I set up (gbss.org.uk), a church treasurer (thepointchurch.co.uk) and a TPAS adviser. I have recently completed a long stint as a governor of an independent school (greatwalstead.co.uk)

What do you bring to Muse?

My strengths include understanding needs, analysing problems and advising on solutions. I can draw on broad and deep market knowledge, commercial acumen and lots of experience of pension governance and administration from different perspectives. I like to think that I am stimulating and pleasant to work with, but that really is for others to say.

What do you do for fun?

Choral singing, gardening, reading, DIY, and occasional hill walking and camping. In my youth, ice hockey.

What do you do?

I am part of the team that specialises in Pensions Administration outsourcing, TPA market and professional adviser reviews.

What is your background?

I’m a Senior Associate of Muse Advisory with over 25 years of experience. I have worked at Towers Watson, Lufthansa German Airlines, where I was the in-house Pensions Administration Officer for 4 years, and at a third party administrator, Clay & Partners, which became Aon Hewitt.

In 2001, I began to focus on pension administration reviews and change projects, working with KPMG, LCP and PwC. I joined Muse Advisory in 2007 where I have worked on pension administration consulting and outsourcing projects with a number of clients.

What do you bring to Muse?

I bring extensive market knowledge and practical experience of pension administration, procurement processes and project management to clients. I have a proven knowledge of both in-house and outsourced pension arrangements, pensions technology and selection, pension administration processes and internal audits.

What do you do for fun?

I enjoy fashion, food and travelling to Italy.

Being half Italian, I like to cook and bake for friends and family but love trying out new restaurants and socialising too. I am an avid watcher of MasterChef, Saturday Kitchen, Bake Off and Strictly Come Dancing, but unfortunately cannot dance!

I am also one of five Directors who are responsible for a Grade II listed building and grounds where I live in London.