Barnett Waddingham has appointed Barry McKay as head of public sector, ahead of the retirement of Graeme Muir.

McKay brings over 20 years of relevant experience in the public sector and has worked closely with Muir since he joined Barnett Waddingham in 2018. Muir has worked for nearly 20 years at Barnett Waddingham and was instrumental in establishing the team in 2002 before building Barnett Waddingham’s public sector practice. This change follows the recent addition of Alison Murray in December to the public sector team as senior consultant. Commenting on the appointment, Muir said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) funds and their amazing people over the last 40 years and am immensely proud of the business we created at Barnett Waddingham 20 years ago." Adding to this, McKay, said: “Given recent government consultations and the upcoming funding valuations, I am thrilled to step into this role at such a pivotal time for the LGPS and for Barnett Waddingham’s public sector team."

Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has appointed two new independent non-executive directors (NED), effective as of 1 January 2025.

Martin Pike has joined PIC board as an independent NED and Tracey Graham has joined the boards of PIC and PIC’s parent company, PIC Group Limited, as an independent NED. Pike will be a member of the Audit, Investment and Origination, and Risk Committees. He is also Greencore Homes Ltd joint founder and chairman, a net zero carbon and low energy residential construction business. He also has over 30 years’ experience in the financial services and insurance sectors as a strategy and risk consultant, and actuary. He brings experience from previous roles at Abrdn plc, where he was risk and capital committee chair and a member of the remuneration, audit, and nomination and governance committees. Meanwhile, Graham will be PIC senior independent director, subject to regulatory approval, and will be a member of the Audit, Customer, and Nomination committees. She has extensive experience as senior independent director and remuneration committee chair and is currently Nationwide Building Society senior independent director and Close Brothers plc. NED and chair of the remuneration committee. PIC chairman, David Weymouth, said he was “delighted” to welcome Pike and Graham to its boards. “They both have significant commercial and operational experience, together with extensive experience as NEDs, having served on boards across a range of sectors including financial services,” he added.

Aviva Investors has appointed Heather Brown as head of EMEA institutional client relationship management.

Previously lead for Aviva Investors’ UK Institutional sales team, Brown will report to Steven Gardner, head of institutional, EMEA, who joined Aviva Investors in May 2024. She was previously primarily responsible for business development with UK pension schemes. Brown joined Aviva Investors in 2018 following several years as an investment consultant. She also has experience at the hybrid Aviva Staff Pension. The process to appoint a new head of UK institutional following Brown’s promotion is currently underway.

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