Royal Mail's pension CEO to leave for National Grid

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Royal Mail Pension Plan (RMPP) chief executive Chris Hogg will leave the £9.8bn defined benefit (DB) scheme and join National Grid, PP has learned.
Hogg, who joined Royal Mail in 2009 as head of funding, will take over as chief executive of the £19bn National Grid UK Pension Schemes.

During his time at RMPP, he has overseen the responsibility to pay members' benefits accrued after 31 March 2012 transferred from the government to the postal firm, following its privatisation.

Hogg then took over as chief executive of the RMPP in 2013. He was previously a corporate-focused pensions consultant at KPMG from 2005 to 2008, and a trustee-focused consultant for Aon from 2000 to 2005.

Hogg's move will coincide with the beginning of his chairmanship of the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association's DB council in October, after he was elected to the role this month.

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His departure comes as Royal Mail battles with its unions over plans to close the RMPP to future accrual from April next year. The postal firm has proposed a "cash balance" scheme where members are guaranteed a lump sum in retirement, which could increase depending on investment performance.

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However, Unite has said the company needs to provide more clarity over the proposals, while the Communication Workers Union has dismissed the proposal and is negotiating with the company for an alternative.

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Hogg declined to comment, while National Grid had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

[jetblack]

I'm really happy for Mr Hogg - and I'd just like to thank him for the sterling work done here at Royal Mail

'The National Grid UK Pension Scheme is the defined benefit pension scheme primarily for former employees of British Gas and Transco, along with a relatively small number of long–service current employees of National Grid who joined the business at least 15 years ago.'

What possibly could go wrong ?

edit. National Grid used to be publicly owned, what with it (almost by definition) being a large natural monopoly upon which the nation is dependant. Privatised in 1990.
And, surprise surprise, have a look at who are the major shareholders - none other than our old friends Blackrock Inc. et al. who also happen to have their fingers in the RMG pie.

Oh wait - this gets more interesting - apparently the (at least partial) owners, also (potentially) will be running the pension scheme :-

'The FTSE 100 company, which runs the power network in England and Wales, is disposing of Aerion, its pension manager, becoming the latest blue-chip company to jettison the management of its retirement obligations.

Aerion, which has 40 staff, runs three-quarters of the power company’s £17bn defined benefit pension scheme. The remaining 25 per cent, which closed to new members in 2002, is already run by external managers.

The sale will have attracted those fund houses that specialise in liability-driven investment — a popular choice for pensions funds wanting to limit their large and fluctuating deficits. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, Legal & General Investment Management and Insight run 90 per cent of the UK’s LDI market.'

What the Hell is going on ? Looks like we are having our wealth skimmed off us two ways - first in dividends on the profits we produce, and then at the other end by having our billions in pension monies be 'managed' by our owners. Next thing we'll be getting paid in food tokens that can only be used at Tesco (and yes - Blackrock have a 7% holding in Tesco as well).

Anyhow, sufficed to say, it doesn't look too rosey for the members of the National Grid DB scheme.

[hans solo]

bring on the revolution

[jetblack]

Who owns Blackrock ?
Well, when 1% of the world population owns as much as the other 99% combined it shouldn't take too much working out. What we do know is that Carlos Slim bought a stake in 2010 - and that his son sits on the board.
These are the people we are working for.

This is all relevant to the OP (in a roundabout kind of way) - this represents the bigger picture, the context, without which all technical discussions about pension deficits/asset allocations/long term gilt returns/QE etc. is all noise and not much signal.

[jetblack]

This is Mr.Slims yacht... :-


.........whilst this is my yacht:-

[clashcityrocker]

You must be middle class if you've got oars.

[k979aaa]

CAPITALISM WORKS FOR THE FEW WHO DO NOT WORK!

[borgpicard]

Watch them leave the sinking ship, they have bled RM dry.