I've been reading up on the 3 UUK nominees for the UUK–UCU Joint Expert Panel: Ronnie Bowie, Sally Bridgeland, and Chris Curry ipe.com/countries/uk/u… #USSStrike 1/
Let's start with Ronnie Bowie, Partner at Hymans Robertson, who 'works as a Scheme Actuary & Investment Adviser to a number of large private & public sector schemes and has built a reputation as a respected expert witness' hymans.co.uk/people-finder/…
I've been going back to 10 or so years, looking at how actuarial science is discussed before and after the 2008 economic crisis. I am outsider to the field – approaching it as someone who researches recent histories & geographies of various human sciences
Here is Ronnie Bowie interviewed in @newsundayherald in 2006, where he is 'refreshingly candid over the role of consultants, the actuarial priests who encouraged 50-year funds to worship at the shrine of 3-monthly performance figures' heraldscotland.com/news/12520496.…
Ronnie Bowie, the journalist argues, sees these 'priests' as driving funds into a 'herd-like mentality' – &, talking of tetrapods, Bowie throws in horses, and lemmings, thrown in for good measure heraldscotland.com/news/12520496.…
There is need for public sector reform, Bowie argues. But he also gestures to potential future industrial relations problems ten years on (2016) – if a two-tier pension benefits system is installed heraldscotland.com/news/12520496.… …
Bowie became President of Faculty of Actuaries in 2008 actuaries.org.uk/council-instit…. He appears in several 2009 newspaper articles reflecting on actuarial profession after economic shocks of 2008 – a shock that 'felt like 2 black eyes & several broken bones' ft.com/content/27c6e3…
Bowie argues that out of this wreckage will come new roles for actuaries – 'from investment banking to climate change'.
In short, 'the corporate risk manager' is 'The sexy & exciting post for the future' ft.com/content/27c6e3…
Here is Bowie in @thetimes in 2009 talking about his ambition for every chief risk officer to be an actuary – as well as actuaries being 'very, very diffident people' thetimes.co.uk/article/the-wo…
In August 2009, an Observer article titled "Propping up final salary schemes 'will create poverty'" made waves – & was based on statements by Ronnie Bowie. theguardian.com/business/2009/…
Bowie, in 2010 @FT interview, argues that because of how schemes are measured, there's an 'inexorable trend' towards more & more short-termism – a 'reluctance to take on risk' probably to detriment of everybody
▶️ Bye bye final salary pensions
ft.com/video/032f7014… (1.45)
Ronnie Bowie is also Chair of Court at University of Dundee dundee.ac.uk/governance/gov… & a member of the Pensions Sub Group dundee.ac.uk/media/dundeewe… (p. 336) cc @DundeeUCU
In Sept 2017 Bowie, as Chair of Court, updated the Court on the meeting of the Pensions Sub-Group – stressing need for 'intergenerational fairness' dundee.ac.uk/media/dundeewe…
As we've seen, the phrase 'intergenerational fairness' plays a complex role in the #USS pensions dispute – not least in relation to how it has been figured in UUK documents (see )
I'm threading in @etymologic's reminder that Dundee wanted less risk in Q3 of Sept 2017 UUK survey
OK, I'm moving on to Sally Bridgeland, who describes herself on LinkedIn as 'Investment consultant, actuary & former CEO of the BP Pension Fund now enjoying a portfolio of advisory and commercial, professional and NFP non-executive appointments' linkedin.com/in/sally-bridg…
Bridgeland's 2016–17 Master Actuary CV notes that while Chief Executive Officer of BP Pension Trustees 'she devised, negotiated and implemented a new funding and investment strategy for the £18bn fund to reflect the trustees’ changing perspective on risk' actuariescompany.co.uk/wp-content/upl…
You can read a 2011 interview with Bridgeland, while she was CEO, BP Pension Trustees, here portfolio-institutional.co.uk/interviews/in-…
Bridgeland also had 20 years with Aon Hewitt (various consulting & business roles up till 2007) actuariescompany.co.uk/wp-content/upl…
And then I found Bridgeland's 2005 paper (J. Asset Management) on global competition run by *** #USS & Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow (later became Aon) *** in 2003 to encourage investment approaches that were 'genuinely long term & genuinely responsible' link.springer.com/article/10.105…
[I've now gone down rabbit hole exploring what was happening w #USS & Hewitt & pensions & risk & UUK in early yrs of 21st century ...
Wondering if I'm going to have to shift my research interests 90 degrees & abandon my tracking down of daydreams for ... this ... new ... life]
Back up out of the rabbit hole of what #USS was doing in 2003–2004 (subject of another future thread, I hope) since this thread is about the UUK nominees for JEP.
Back to Sally Bridgeland on the early stages of de-risking the BP pension fund (2014) ft.com/content/449d00…
And Bridgeland in 2016 on de-risking in the aftermath of quantitative easing, & the Deepwater Horizon BP oil disaster (2010) theactuary.com/features/2016/…
In 2015, Bridgeland spoke at the Allianz-Oxford Pensions Conference, hosted by Gordon Clark, on "Beyond the mid-life crisis: Challenges for plan sponsors & trustees in the UK as DB pension funds mature" geog.ox.ac.uk/events/151001/…
Particularly interesting is Bridgeland's role in 300 Club: investment professionals 'who have joined together to respond to an urgent need to raise uncomfortable & fundamental questions' about 'foundations of the investment industry & investing' the300club.org/members/
Bridgeland is co-author (with Amin Rajan) of 300 Club's 'Governance practices:
Bridging the gap between rhetoric & reality' (2016) the300club.org/wp-content/upl…
Bridgeland & Rajan argue there's a 'yawning gap between the rhetoric of the governance improvements of recent years & their reality ...'
'As the funding ratios have been hit by falling discount rates, a culture of micro management has been evident'
the300club.org/wp-content/upl…
Bridgeland & Rajan's paper focuses on governance – and particularly on the argument that pension fund trustees need to make a 'behavioural shift' the300club.org/wp-content/upl…
Bridgeland & Rajan's conclusion (6 Steps Along the Way Forward) gives, I contend, a good indication of how Bridgeland will approach her role on the UUK–UCU JEP the300club.org/wp-content/upl…
Bridgeland will have known USS intimately during the USS–Hewitt (Aon) competition in 2003 on ‘As if the Long Term Really Did Matter’. I'm even more intrigued, now, about how relationships between JEP members, #USS trustees #USS executive, & #UUK will play out
Finally, to Chris Curry, director of Pensions Policy Institute pensionspolicyinstitute.org.uk/about/people-i…
Curry is one of the authors of the 2010 Pensions Policy Institute report, funded by Nuffield Foundation 'The Future of the Public Sector Pensions' pensionspolicyinstitute.org.uk/publications/r…
In 2013, Curry presented ‘Implications of the government’s reforms to public sector
pensions’ in workshop @Dennis_Leech organised on "Rethinking
the Economics of Pensions: Is there a crisis of pensions or a crisis of pensions governance & regulation?" google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j…
Curry was a witness during the Pension Schemes Bill (Session 2014–15, 23 Oct 2014); see publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cm… for contributions as regards various types of pension schemes, including CDC
Curry contributed to '#USS Investment Builder: A summary of member research' (May 2016), which discussed design of new Investment Builder section of the scheme google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j…
Curry presented 'The future security of defined benefit pensions' in June 2017. You can find the slides and the presentation here: bham.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/…
The Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) (of which Curry is Director) submitted to the DWP call for evidence on 'Defined benefit pension schemes: security & sustainability' google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j…
The PPI submission includes a section on increasing level of scrutiny on scheme governance (see also Bridgeland's interests in governance, mentioned earlier in thread) google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j…
In December 2017, Curry spoke at event (along with David Pitt-Watson & Kevin Wesbroom [Aon]) organised by CSFI [Ctr for Study of Financial Innovation] "Defined ambition: Is it time for collective defined contribution schemes in the UK?" csfi.org/20171219-defin…
OK, that's enough from me for now on the UUK nominees. Over at @USSbriefs, you'll find our thread on the 3 UCU nominees for the JEP
That's my 'remain[ing] vigilant' 👀 over for the day (see UCU
Higher Education Branch Action Note, 23 May 2018 ucu.org.uk/circ/pdf/UCUBA…)
But I'm newly gripped by what #USS was doing in 2003–2004. More on that soon. #USSstrike
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