Beyond Curious with LCP

This week, we talk to Andrew Blair, Head of Automatic Enrolment and NEST at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

As someone who has worked with numerous Pensions Ministers, we discuss Andrew’s background and how he got into the civil service and pensions, as well as what happens when a new Minister starts and the vital, but unseen role of the Ministerial private office.

This week, David Fairs and Steve Webb talk to Chris Curry, Director of the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI). We cover everything from the government's pensions review to the reform of pension tax relief and the prospects for collective DC schemes!

This week, David Fairs and Steve Webb talk to Kate Jones, Chair of the Pensions Protection Fund. We talk about her background in investment leadership, her experience in the LDI market and how this helped during the turbulence in 2022, and how her experience as a coach and mentor has helped in dealing with Boards.

This week, David Fairs and Steve Webb talk to Andrew Scott, author and global macro economist and longevity specialist.

We talk about Andrew’s ideas that as a society we need a different approach to the way we understand and frame ageing. The traditional 20th century approach is that life falls into three stages - education, work and retirement. This doesn’t fit with increasing life expectancy trends. There needs to be cultural and political shifts to allow people to lead healthier and more productive longer lives and to think about careers differently.

The pensions sector is undergoing profound change. In season 3 of Beyond Curious with LCP, David Fairs and Steve Webb explore some of the big challenges with key individuals in the industry – from government officials and regulators to major schemes.

In the first episode of the season, David and Steve talk about what a new Labour government means for pensions. We explore the new funding code, Mansion House, superfunds, DC consolidation, tax changes and more.

For this last episode in season 2, LCP’s Victoria Snowden is joined by LCP CEO, Aaron Punwani to talk with Simon Rogerson, Group CEO of Octopus Group, which in 20 years has gone from start-up to a household name providing energy, investments and more.

Victoria Snowden and Gordon Watchorn continue to explore what it means to be a CEO with Georgia Stewart, co-founder and CEO of Tumelo. Tumelo provides enterprise-grade software to help asset owners to align their voting with their stated values. Georgia recounts the dramatic journey of a start-up, from its birth in 2018 to today.

In this episode, Victoria Snowden and Gordon Watchorn talk to Helen Dickinson OBE, CEO of the British Retail Consortium, about how the role found her, and she shares her insights on the retail sector.

Camilla Nichol joined the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust as CEO in 2014, taking on a role unlike any other, preserving the history of the last great unspoiled continent.

This week’s podcast is the story of Helen Dean CBE, the CEO of NEST, the National Employment Savings Trust. Helen is one of the architects of auto-enrolment, helping to bring 9 million UK workers into pension saving. Helen recounts the detail of the challenge, from defining the concept through to seeing the first £19 invested, to the multi-billion pound national pension scheme that exists today.