Royal Mail appoints new pensions chair

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/201 ... -new-chair" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The Royal Mail Pension Plan has appointed a new chair, as it reinvents itself as a smaller entity ahead of the state-run postal operator’s part-privatisation.
Royal Mail appoints new pensions chair

Joanna Matthews will succeed Jane Newell, who last week announced that she would step down in September after nearly eight years with the plan. Unlike Newell, Matthews will not become chair of the Royal Mail's direct contribution fund, which has about £50m of savings so far. Royal Mail said that an appointment to this position would be made separately.

Matthews has been a trustee of the RMPP since 2006, and has prior experience of chairing pension plans, currently chairing the Electricity Supply Pension Scheme, the Siemens Pension Scheme and the Mirror Group Pension Scheme. The ESPS, the largest of those schemes, oversees £26bn in assets. Matthews also acts as an independent trustee of the BOC Pension Scheme and the Blackwell Pension Fund.

Her appointment comes in a year of radical change for the scheme. In March, the European Commission approved the UK government's plan to part-privatise the state postal operator. This allowed for the transfer of about £27bn of the pension fund's £31bn of assets to the government.

The government also assumed responsibility for the payment of around £35bn in pensions to former Royal Mail workers. The new-look defined benefit RMPP will contain 121,000 staff who currently work for the group.

Commenting on the agreement, Matthews said, “The pension solution was a very important moment in the Royal Mail Pension Plan’s history. I am very much looking forward to joining the Trustee team and playing my part in managing the plan’s future.”

Former chair Newell said that the transition had proved a “very obvious break point” for her time as chair of the fund, while Gerry Degaute, the chief executive of the pension scheme, has said he also plans to move on in 2013, after 26 years with the organisation.

Matthews will chair the plan as it pursues a full actuarial valuation, which Degaute and Newell said would be the scheme’s next major task. A review of investments will follow, with Degaute recently suggesting that a diversification of its fixed-income holdings could be on the cards.

Jon Millidge, the company secretary of Royal Mail, welcomed Matthews to her new role. “We are absolutely delighted to be appointing a Chair with such comprehensive experience and expertise. We look forward to working with Joanna and the members of the Trustee Board to manage the future of the Royal Mail Pension Plan in the best interests of its members.”