Personality of the Year

This award (nominated by our readers) aims to recognise those individuals that have truly made their mark in the UK pensions space.
Voting has now closed.

Pensions Age Personality of the Year 2022: meet the candidates

Chris Connelly, Propositions & Solutions Director, EQ Paymaster
Chris is an instrumental leader in the pensions community and passionate about making the industry better. Chris champions Pensions Dashboards, wearing three hats: designing EQ’s solutions; chairing the PASA working group; and seconding into MaPS. With no existing trade body, Chris created a new cross-industry forum of the leading software providers to collectively discuss and debate the technical implications of what MaPS were planning and provide technical input into the PASA group. The 16-strong group is successfully improving MaPS recommendations and PASA guidance, collaborating on communications and proposals. The Pensions Regulator also joins calls when it needs technical input first-hand.

Jerry Gandhi, Trustee Director, 20-20 Trustees; Pensions Manager UK & Ireland, Schneider Electric
Jerry has been involved in the pensions industry for more than 40 years. Having begun his career in third party administration and pensions consultancy, he has become a leading figure in the industry as an in-house group pensions director for a number of global businesses. In 1999, he established his own consultancy and over the past 20 years has provided support to many significant businesses/pension schemes on either a contract or consultancy basis. He is currently working on a contract (part time) with Schneider Electric as the pensions manager for UK & Ireland completing a number of change projects to improve the pension delivery of the UK & Ireland. He joined 20-20 Trustees in mid-2019, to transfer his significant operational, strategic and delivery skills to supporting trustee board, enabling them to attain best practice in pension scheme delivery. His focus is to ensure the highest quality governance, aligning the aims of the scheme with the employer, and to maximise the security of member benefits, leveraging quality external support as needed, to ensure cost efficiency in the process.

Patricia Sharman, Country Managing Director, UK, CACEIS
Pat has built a diverse and entrepreneurial team, one aimed at the future. She is actively developing the next generation of young, highly talented individuals who are creating the solutions for the biggest problems facing the UK pension industry, such as climate risk. Pat spends time mentoring talent so individuals are equipped for their future careers in pensions. For example, Pat worked closely with the UK product head at CACEIS with responsibility for developing solutions for UK pension schemes, which culminated in the development of innovative ESG and Carbon reporting tools to help pension schemes in their governance decision making

Andrew Vaughan, Senior Partner, Barnett Waddingham
Andrew has worked in the pensions industry for all of his career. As senior partner, Andrew oversees the growth and strategic direction of Barnett Waddingham. At the heart of this strategy, is the principle of ‘doing the right thing’ while making sure that clients receive a consistently high quality service focused on helping them meet their objectives. He is passionate about enabling employees to deliver the personal, tailored approach for which Barnett Waddingham is widely recognised. Since taking the reins in June 2020, he has helped steer the business through the shockwaves of Covid-19. He has provided strong leadership to the firm, while at the same time making sure that Barnett Waddingham quickly put in place a strategy so that clients remained informed and supported. Andrew has been very active throughout his career supporting the broader pensions community. He has chaired the UK’s Association of a Consulting Actuaries, as well as the International Association of Consulting Actuaries. He has worked closely with the DWP over the years including chairing the Defined Ambition Industry Working Group which was set up by Sir Steve Webb when he was the Pensions Minister.

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on 23 February at the London Marriott Hotel, Grosvenor Square - book your table here.