Speaker Profile: Alex Cunningham

Alex Cunningham has been the Labour MP for Stockton North since May 2010 and is currently the Shadow Pensions Minister. A journalist by profession, he worked for newspapers and radio stations before joining the gas industry where he held a number of public relations and communications posts culminating in his role as Head of Communications for Transco, the gas pipeline company.  He left the industry in 2002 and set up his own public relations and web design business which he ran until his election to Parliament in 2010. He was a member of Cleveland County Council for seven years and Stockton Borough Council for a further 11 holding a number of senior posts in education and children’s services. He was the founding Chair of the local Children’s Trust.   Alex also served on Arts Council North East, chaired the North East Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and was a member of the National Board.  He was a non-executive director of both One North East, the Regional Development Agency, and the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust. In Parliament Alex has served on both the Work and Pensions and Education Select Committees and was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Sadiq Khan, then Shadow Justice Secretary and now Mayor of London.  He was also shadow Minister for the Natural Environment from 2015-16. Alex maintain his interest in education and young people’s issues, carers and industry chairing the two All Party Parliamentary Groups on Energy Intensive Industries and Carbon Capture and Storage. Alex, working initially with the British Lung Foundation, led the work in Parliament to legislate for the ban on smoking in cars with children present, eventually introduced as part of the Children and Families Act of 2015. He is married to Evaline and has two sons and a three year old grandson.

Topic Synopsis: Keynote Speaker
Shadow Pensions Minister Alex Cunningham will offer his thoughts on some of the key issues in UK pensions today, to include transparency in the industry, the future of auto-enrolment, collective DB/DC and more