Evan is the presenter of BBC Radio 4's Today programme and Dragons' Den on BBC2. His previous role was as the BBC's Economics Editor, responsible for reporting and analysing economic developments on a range of programmes on BBC radio and television, particularly the Ten O'Clock News. Before becoming economics editor at the BBC, Evan served as a general economics correspondent, and then economics editor on Newsnight. He received the Work Foundation’s Broadcast Journalist of the Year award in 1998, 2001 and 2003, and won the Harold Wincott Business Broadcaster of the Year award in 2002. Before joining the BBC in 1993, he worked as an economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and at the London Business School. He studied at St John’s College Oxford, and at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He wrote “Public Spending”, published by Penguin in 1998. He is also a co-author of the “Penguin Dictionary of Economics” and the “Penguin Dictionary of Business”.

Chris is Member of Parliament for Epsom and Ewell, and Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. He was first elected in 2001 and since then has served as an Opposition Whip and as a Member of the influential Transport Select Committee. He was promoted to Shadow Health Minister in 2002 and then Shadow Higher Education Minister in 2003. After the General Election in 2005 he became a member of the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Leader of the House. Chris was promoted to Shadow Secretary of State for Transport in December 2005. Following David Cameron’s reshuffle in July 2007 Chris moved to the Work and Pensions brief. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, where he read history. After university, he joined the BBC’s News Training Scheme, and worked as a producer on BBC News and Channel Four’s programme Business Daily. Chris then moved to the business side of the media industry, working for a number of small and medium-sized production businesses before moving to the Employee Change Communication practice at international communications firm Burson Marsteller, where he subsequently became European Marketing Director.

Jenny gained the Cardiff Central seat in the general election in 2005. Before getting elected in 2005 as the first woman ever to represent central Cardiff, and the first Liberal since the 1920s, she worked for a number of charities. She worked for the children's charity Barnardo's in their Welsh fostering and adoption project, was Head of Advocacy for UNICEF UK, part of the UN Children’s Fund, and was the Head of Victim Support South Wales. As an MP her work on local issues includes: campaigning against the Council Tax and tuition fees; and for fair pensions for former Allied Steel and Wire workers. She has also campaigned hard for the Government to invest more in improved energy efficiency and renewable sources of energy. In Parliament she was a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee and the Public Administration Select Committee from 2005 to 2008. She was also Deputy Chief Whip from 2006 to 2008. In 2007 she chaired the Liberal Democrat Welsh Assembly election campaign. Nick Clegg appointed her as Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in June 2008, after she previously held the post of Ministry of Justice spokesperson from January 2008. She was educated at Wimbledon High School before winning a scholarship to Uppingham School. She studied Classics at Durham University and then, following her MSc in Development Studies at the London School of Economics, she became Head of Office for Welsh Liberal Democrat MP, Lembit Opik. Whilst working for Lembit she was elected in 1998 as the youngest councillor on Merton Council, where she sat on the Environment Committee.

Nigel has been at the TUC since 1994 and was made Head of Campaigns and Communications in 1997. He is responsible for the TUC's media relations, public affairs, publications, events and campaigning. He has led the TUC's campaign work on pensions in recent years, and helped establish the People's Pensions Coalition with Which?, Help the Aged, Age Concern and the EHCR. He is a member of the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority Consumer Representative Committee. Before the TUC, he worked for Robin Cook MP and Bryan Gould MP.

Pádraig Floyd, editor in chief, UK pensions & investment group, Financial Times Business
In addition to his role as editor in chief of UK pensions & investment group at Financial Times Business, Pádraig is the editor of Pensions Management and High Net Worth magazines. With a wide range of knowledge of institutional and personal finance issues, he regularly speaks at conferences and events on pensions and investment issues. Pádraig joined Financial Times Business in 2000 from Thomson Legal & Regulatory Group.

Owen is staff writer at Pensions Management and High Net Worth magazines. He also contributes to other publications within the FT Business UK pensions and investments group, including Pensions Week and Pensions News. His main areas of interest are regulation and pension reform, the bulk annuity buyout market and alternative investments. He is also reserve trustee on the Pearson Group Pension Scheme and sits on the scheme’s money purchase 2003 section sub-committee. Outside pensions, Owen regularly writes for a range of publications, including FTfm and the New Statesman.

Pension Corporation was set up in 2006 to provide pension insurance, or the selling of bulk annuities to UK defined benefit pension schemes. It has also pioneered the direct acquisition of corporate assets with large pension schemes and is now the corporate sponsor of schemes totalling over £4bn of assets. Edmund has twenty two years experience in private equity and debt market. He led the 1998 buyout and formation of Duke Street Capital (“DSC”), having been Chief Executive since 1994. During his tenure as Group CEO, DSC’s private equity funds under management grew to over €2 billion on the back of excellent performance. DSC’s 27 realised private equity investments in the last eleven years have had an average gross IRR of 34%. The firm boasts one of the most complete exit records of any mid market European buyout investor, with only eleven investments left in the portfolio. He was responsible in 2000 for creating and building Duke Street Capital Debt Management, one of Europe’s largest and most successful CDO managers, which was sold to Babson Capital in 2004. He was Chairman of the British Venture Capital Association 2001-2002. Edmund is a Trustee of the Galapagos Conservation Trust.

Mick is an independent consumer advocate. He is founder and Director of the Financial Inclusion Centre (FIC). FIC’s mission is to ensure consumers’ core financial needs are met by promoting fair and efficient financial markets, and developing innovative solutions that increase access to fair and affordable financial services. He represents consumers at EU level on a number of key issues. He is a member of the CEIOPS consultative panel, and the EC Financial Users (FINUSE) Panel. He was a member of the PES group in the European Parliament working group investigating hedge funds and private equity; and was the consumer representative on the Expert Banking Group evaluating progress of the Financial Services Action Plan. He is also a founding director of Hackney Credit Union based in the London Borough of Hackney, one of the most deprived areas of the UK; and is a director of The Pensions Advisory Service. Mick was Principal Policy Adviser at Which? until end 2006. Prior to this, he worked for five years for two major fund management firms in London.

Nigel is responsible for a wide range of pension policy issues including the Government’s proposals on pension reform, the future of occupational pension schemes, the regulation of occupational pension schemes and pension investment matters. Prior to this he worked on pensions and savings issues at the Association of British Insurers (ABI), including the Pensions Commission’s proposals, the EU pensions agenda, and developing a joined-up approach to savings across the lifetime. While at the ABI he wrote two research reports on pension reform including, “UK Pension Reform: Lessons from Abroad?” (2005) and “European Pension Reform and Private Pensions” (2004). He also wrote a number of the ABI’s submissions to the Pensions Commission and Parliamentary Select Committees. Previously he worked as the European Policy Manager at the ABI, as a Senior Consultant with a Brussels-based lobbying firm, and in the UK civil service.

A Chartered Accountant, Ed was previously a partner at Ernst & Young where he specialised in auditing and advising insurance companies, brokers, IFAs and Lloyd's syndicates. He has experience of a range of risk management and regulatory projects as well as company listings, due diligence, investigations, finance transformation and audit delivery. At Paternoster, he is responsible for the risk management and compliance function. He works closely with the trustees and their legal advisers during transactions to ensure that the requirements of the trustees and sponsors are met by Paternoster's insurance solution. He is responsible for agreeing the structure and legal terms for business underwritten. Ed is also responsible for the corporate governance structure at Paternoster, ensuring that there are effective mechanisms for monitoring and controlling risks and that appropriate levels of capital are in place.

Between 2003 and 2007 Simon worked at Reuters, first as Director of Corporate Communications, and subsequently becoming Director of Corporate Communications and Marketing. Before joining Reuters, he was Communications Secretary to HM The Queen at Buckingham Palace. He was previously Director of Corporate Affairs at British Airways and a non-executive director of Comair Ltd (South Africa). He was a special adviser in the Prime Minister’s Policy Unit at 10 Downing Street (1996-97). He was previously a partner at Brunswick, the public relations group, and Director of European Public Affairs for Hill & Knowlton in Brussels. He was born in South Africa, and has worked as a journalist and consultant in New Zealand, Belgium and the UK. He is a member of the Better Regulation Commission, a member of the UK-Jamestown Committee and a Trustee of the New Zealand-UK Link Foundation. He read PPE at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford Union. Simon was a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.

John is the Deputy Chief Executive/Head of Operations of B&CE Benefit Schemes, the provider of employee benefits for, primarily, manual workers in the construction industry. He is also a director of B&CE Insurance, the subsidiary company that operates EasyBuild, the UK’s largest stakeholder pension scheme based on the number of members. He is the company spokesperson for all insurance and pension matters. He campaigns vigorously on behalf of B&CE for the government to remove the unnecessary barriers that act as disincentives for lower to moderate earners to save for retirement. He joined B&CE in 1995 to set up B&CE Insurance. John has worked in the financial services industry over 30 years and has held a number of senior positions in the UK and overseas. He is a member of the ABI Pensions & Savings Strategy Committee.

Joseph is head of global portfolio solutions EMEA. He joined Morgan Stanley in 2008 and has 12 years of investment experience. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Joseph was senior investment manager (pensions) at Shell International Limited. Before this, he was head of fixed income at IBM Retirement Funds EMEA. Joseph received an M.A. in economics and finance from the University of Sheffield, and a B.A. in economics and history from the University College Dublin. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Richard has recently joined Cass Business School as Dean. He has previously held senior appointments in the City and Government and most recently was Chairman of the Shareholder Executive, the body created in September 2003 to improve fundamentally the government's performance as a shareholder in government–owned businesses. After studying law and qualifying at Lovells, he began his career as a banker with Kleinwort Benson. He completed an MBA at IMD, Lausanne while at Kleinwort Benson before moving to BZW, where he rose to be Joint Head of Global Corporate Finance. After BZW’s takeover by CSFB he became Chairman of European Investment Banking. In this role he acted as an adviser to the UK Government, which ultimately led to his appointment as Chief Executive of the Shareholder Executive. Richard is currently a non-executive director of Debenhams, Tomkins and Scottish and Southern Energy.

Craig is a structurer and marketer for BNP Paribas' Global Solutions group. He is involved in the development of derivative and structured product solutions for European pension scheme sponsors and trustees, to better manage the risk and return of their pension assets. Prior to

this he worked for 11 years with Watson Wyatt and 6 years with Sedgwick Nobel Lowndes, advising pension scheme sponsors and trustees on investment strategy, derivatives and asset liability modelling. He has also worked for Friends Provident in their actuarial services department. Craig is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and graduated from the University of Manchester with a BSc in Mathematics.

Richard is head of UK business. He joined Morgan Stanley in 2004 and has 23 years of industry experience. Prior to joining the firm, Richard worked at ABN Amro as director of institutional business development. Prior to this, he worked as business development director at Fleming Asset Management and prior to that, as finance director at Fleming Pooled Pensions. Richard received a B.Sc. in mathematics from the University of Manchester and is a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.

Tony leads BNP Paribas’ pension group. The multinational pension teams partner with clients to deliver the widest range of banking, investment and custodial resources. Shared experience in landmark pension transactions, coupled with deep expertise in bespoke risk management, has led to the development of better solutions for pension funding, cash flow hedging, deficit repair, structured returns for both defined benefit and defined contribution schemes and surplus management.

Formerly Head of Investment Services at Deloitte, Tony has worked with many governments, supranational and public sector entities including the UN, Department of Work and Pensions and Pension Protection Fund, corporates (including WH Smith and Kingfisher), trustees, asset managers and insurance companies on policy, strategy, risk management, transaction due diligence and governance. In 2005, he was the adviser to the top performing pension fund in the WM Survey, outperforming the median fund by over 10%.

With a degree in Banking & Finance, Tony trained as an actuary and investment specialist with Mercer and Hewitt, Bacon & Woodrow. Tony is the actuarial profession’s Principal Examiner in investments and directs its research programme on finance, investment and risk management as well as authoring the official responses to Government policy consultations such as the Myners’ Review of Institutional Investment.

LPFA manage funds with a market value of £3.8 billion and are responsible for administering pension arrangements for nearly 200,000 members of the Local Government Pension Scheme. Mike joined LPFA in September 2006, having previously held the County Treasurer role at Surrey County Council since 1998. He was brought up on Teesside and came south to University College London where he gained a degree in Maths. He then trained as a CIPFA accountant with the London Borough of Westminster and worked for the London Boroughs of Southwark and Hammersmith and Fulham before joining Surrey. He chairs the Officers Advisory Group to the Local Government Pensions Committee and is a member of the CIPFA Pensions Panel. He regularly chairs the NAPF Local Authority Forum round table. Mike is a frequent speaker on local government finance and pensions issues at national conferences.

Adam is Chief Executive of Royal Mail Group and chairman of its Management Board. He joined the business in February 2003 and has led Royal Mail's transformation from an organisation failing customer service targets and losing £318m to the position today where quality of service to customers is at the best levels in a decade, hitting its Quality of Service targets, and last year made a £355m profit on its operations. He has spearheaded Royal Mail's modernisation drive and has taken £1.5bn of costs out of the business and improved productivity by fundamentally re-engineering the transportation, processing and delivery of the mail which has led to a reduction in the workforce of 45,000 people. His key role now is to ensure the Royal Mail continues to modernise to compete successfully in a market which opened to full competition in January 2006. Before joining Royal Mail, he was Chief Executive of the Football Association while between 1988 and 1999 he held a number of senior roles at Saatchi and Saatchi, including Joint Chief Executive from 1995. He sits on the boards of Camelot, the National Lottery operator, and Debenhams. Adam is a member of the President’s Committee of the CBI and is Chairman of the Employers’ Forum for Disability.

Niki is the Director of the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) with overall responsibility for leading and managing the PPI. The Pensions Policy Institute is an educational research charity with an objective to inform the public policy debate on pensions and retirement provision. The PPI has published extensive research and analysis on the Government’s current pension reform proposals, including the proposals to introduce personal accounts, on state pension reform and on the interaction of both sets of reforms. Prior to joining the PPI, Niki spent ten years in the UK civil service, initially at the NHS Executive and then at HM Treasury. While at HM Treasury, she led two independent reviews - the Review of the Actuarial Profession chaired by Sir Derek Morris, and the Review of Business - University Collaboration, chaired by Richard Lambert. Niki is an economics graduate of Cambridge University with an MBA from INSEAD.

For seven years David Rowley has covered all the major events in pensions from the Myners Review in 2001 to personal account for UK trade magazines. He is editor of Pensions Week, the UK's leading weekly title for occupational pensions and is an occasional contributor to the Financial Times on pension investment issues. David has previously written for Professional Pensions, Employee Benefits and Employee Rewards & Benefits.

Alistair is a senior lecturer in finance at the University of Edinburgh Business School, and a Fellow of the Pensions Institute at Cass Business School in London. His research and consulting interests focus on pension fund investment management, behavioural economics, and the design of DC pension schemes. Prior to joining academia in 2003, he spent ten years at AEGON Asset Management UK in various roles including Head of Investment Strategy and Head of Equity Research. He is a CFA Charterholder and has published research in a number of academic and professional investment journals, including the Financial Analysts Journal.