Otto Thoresen

Otto Thoresen has extensive experience in pensions, financial services and consumer issues across a range of private and public sector organisations. Before starting his portfolio career he was Director General of the Association of British Insurers (ABI) from 2011 to 2015. Previously, he was Chief Executive of AEGON UK from 2005 to 2011. He was the independent reviewer of the Treasury Review of Generic Financial Advice – the Thoresen Review – published in 2008, which led to the creation of the Money Advice Service. Otto became Chair of NEST Corporation on 1 February 2015. He is also Chair of the board of Aviva International Insurance, and the board of Aberdeen Asset Management’s Life subsidiary

Chris Cheetham

Chris Cheetham was appointed to the Board on 16 September 2020. Chris has over 40 years’ experience in the investment management industry and is Chair of the Mineworkers Pension Scheme, which has c.£12 billion of assets and 135,000 members. Chris was Chair of HSBC Asset Management (UK) until June 2020. He is a Non-Executive Director of the Pension Protection Fund, a member of The People’s Pension Investment Steering Group and a Trustee of the Science Museum Foundation. Chris began his career with Prudential Portfolio Managers (now M&G), where he worked in a variety of investment management roles, ultimately as Director of Investment Strategy and Research. During his career he held positions as Global CIO of AXA Investment Managers and CEO at AXA Sun Life Asset Management. In May 2003 he joined HSBC as Global Chief Investment Officer.

Emily Clark

Emily Clark has been the Chief Economist of BT Group since 2016. Emily has created a function which provides economic thinking and analysis to further key commercial, regulatory, policy and strategy goals, wherever it is required in BT. Prior to her current role, Emily was a Director at a City law firm and, before that, an economic consultant, working for clients in a range of sectors, including energy, financial services and communications. In all her roles, Emily has been involved in launching and embedding a range of gender diversity initiatives.

Nigel Cotgrove

Nigel Cotgrove was a National Officer of the Communication Workers Union for 31 years until July 2020. In that role he was the national lead for occupational pensions in telecoms, IT and financial service companies for two decades. This included negotiating on all BT pension issues, such as changes to the BTPS, improvements to the defined contribution pension, and the creation of the hybrid pension. He was part of the Airwave Solutions DC Pension Governance Committee between 2007 and 2020. Nigel has served on the Members’ Panel at the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) since 2016, and is also a Trustee of the CWU 2000 Defined Benefit Pension. Nigel is a member of the CWU and the National Federation of Occupational Pensioners.

Andrew Kerr

Andrew Kerr was employed by BT from 1975 to 2008. He served on the National Executive Committee of the CWU from 1997, and was the President from 1999 to 2008, when he was elected to his current position as Deputy General Secretary (Telecoms and Financial Services). He is responsible for leading negotiations with BT on all occupational matters, which has included pensions. Andrew is a former Trustee of the BT Retirement Plan, a Governance Committee member of the BT Retirement Saving Scheme and a Trustee of the NCU Staff Superannuation Scheme. He has a pension from the BT Pension Scheme and is a member of the NFOP.

Ben Marshall

Ben Marshall has been a trustee of a number of pension schemes continuously for over 30 years and, until his recent retirement, was both chair of the General Federation of Trade Unions Pension Scheme and a member of the board of governance of the Steria Defined Contribution Scheme - since its creation in 2010. He has also been a trustee of the BT Retirement Plan (now the BTRSS and now a Group Personal Pension Plan), and the Accenture AHRS DC Scheme.

Beryl Shepherd

Beryl Shepherd was employed by BT from July 1978 until November 2019 and was, until August 2019, the president of the CWU and chair of the National Executive Committee of the CWU. She served on the National Executive Committee of the CWU and the Telecom & Financial Services Executive of the CWU from 2002 until 2019, when she relinquished her responsibilities. Beryl is a deferred member of the Scheme and a member of the NFOP.

Keith Nichols

Keith Nichols was formerly Chief Financial Officer and member of the board of management at AkzoNobel N.V., where he played a key role in the sale of Organon BioSciences to Schering Plough and in the acquisition of ICI and its related pension liabilities. Prior to joining AkzoNobel N.V. in 2005, he held various senior finance positions across a number of industrial sectors for companies such as Corus Group, TPG N.V., WPP and BET. He is a Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.

David Viles

David Viles joined BT as Director of Risk, Compliance and Assurance in 2018. David began his professional career at Arthur Andersen in 1988, firstly as an auditor and then building a number of consulting businesses, mostly related to risk. He then joined Deloitte and later BP plc, holding various senior risk-related roles. David re-joined Deloitte in 2015 as a senior advisor in its risk management practice.