Future of Pensions Summit 2026

Debi O'Donovan

Co-founder & Director, REBA

Debi is the Co-founder  &  Director at REBA.

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Katie Adams

Head of Client Management, Royal London

Katie joined Royal London in 2024 as a Regional Distribution Manager before establishing the Client Management function in 2025. She leads a team of Client Relationship Managers and Employee Engagement Consultants, partnering with advisers and employers to strengthen strategic relationships, deliver value for money and improve member outcomes and financial resilience.

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Antonia Balaam

DC Clients & Head of Master Trust, Aegon

Antonia is a qualified Actuary with 29 years pensions experience. Her background is in consultancy, working initially as an Actuary to large defined benefit schemes at Aon and Willis Towers Watson, before switching to focus on DC schemes 14 years ago.
As part of the senior leadership team at Aegon, Antonia is responsible for the DC clients and relationship teams across Aegon’s workplace business, as well as personally managing a select portfolio of Aegon’s largest clients.
More recently Antonia was appointed as Head of Master Trust, bringing together Aegon, the Master Trust trustees and employers in delivering the innovation and collaboration needed to drive excellent member outcomes.

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Mark Bennett

Managing Director, LifeSight

Mark is a Managing Director within the LifeSight team and a DC specialist with close to two decades of experience spanning scheme design, investment propositions, governance frameworks, and member outcomes. Before joining WTW LifeSight in 2018, he spent 12 years at L&G, gaining deep experience across the full DC value chain and building strong relationships with consultants and corporate clients.

In his role at WTW, Mark leads LifeSight’s work with prospective clients, supporting them through procurement, due diligence, and the wider decision making process. He plays a central role in helping organisations understand how LifeSight can support their long term DC objectives. Mark also manages key intermediary relationships, ensuring LifeSight remains responsive to market developments and employer needs.

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Olasumbo (Ollie)  Biobaku-Mason

Head of DC Member Proposition, L&G

Olasumbo serves as the Head of DC Member Proposition in the DC Distribution. She oversees the development and enhancement of L&G’s DC member proposition, ensuring it remains innovative and effective. Olasumbo engages with clients and external stakeholders to maintain L&G’s leadership in DC innovation. She leads a team of communication professionals who assist clients in developing effective communication strategies, from scheme implementation to ongoing engagement with pension scheme members. With 20 years of experience in the financial services industry, Olasumbo has collaborated with some of the largest pension schemes, creating strategies and tools to simplify complex scheme designs and changes. Prior to joining L&G, Olasumbo held communication consulting roles at Hymans Robertson and the creative agency Like Minds. She is committed to enhancing member engagement and understanding what drives individual behaviour, as well as advocating for greater diversity within the pension industry. Olasumbo holds a Certificate in Strategic Communication Management and earned a 2:1 BSc in Politics and International Relations from the University of Southampton.

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David Bouchard

Account Director, Aegon

David is an Account Director at Aegon UK, with over a decade of experience in the pensions and employee benefits industry. Specialising in pension governance, defined contribution strategy, and client development.
David has built his career across leading consultancies and major providers, giving him a well-rounded and practical understanding of how governance operates from multiple perspectives. Before joining Aegon, he held consulting roles at Mercer, Punter Southall Aspire, and Capita, advising trustees and employers on scheme design, regulatory requirements, and governance best practice.
At Aegon, David focuses on new business development through intermediary relationships, working closely with consultants and advisers to deliver solutions that meet evolving client needs. This position allows him to combine his governance expertise with a strong understanding of market dynamics, helping shape propositions that are both commercially competitive and aligned with good member outcomes.

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Jacob Bowman

Director, Isio

Jacob Bowman FIA is a Director at Isio and a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. He specialises in DC investment consulting, advising pension schemes on investment strategy, governance and ESG integration. Jacob has over 10 years’ experience helping pension providers and trustees deliver better outcomes for members.

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Harry Bridger

Business Development Manager, TPT Retirement Solutions

Harry joined TPT Retirement Solutions as in July 2026 as a business development manager.

Prior to joining TPT, Harry was at Brightwell where he worked on the launch of their third-party administration, investment, and actuarial business. Harry started his career at PwC working as a Defined Benefit pensions consultant, where he also qualified as an Actuary. Harry is passionate about improving retirement outcomes for employees.

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Rishal Conroy

Head of Client Engagement, Mercer Master Trust

With over twelve years of experience in the financial services industry, Rishal specialises in client relationship management and defined contribution (DC) solutions, with expertise in the Australian superannuation and banking sectors. Her key strength is translating complex messages into clear, actionable insights that motivate clients, members, and stakeholders. This is supported by excellent communication skills and a proactive, growth-oriented approach to developing strategies that meet evolving needs.

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Paul Eagles

Head of CDC, TPT Retirement Solutions

Paul joined TPT Retirement Solutions as Head of Professional Services in June 2023 and was appointed Head of CDC in September 2025.

Prior to joining TPT, Paul accumulated more than 20 years of leadership experience across leading DC Master Trust providers, including LGIM, Aegon and BlackRock. Since joining TPT, Paul has played a key role in shaping the organisation’s CDC proposition, leading the assessment of market opportunities, defining the requirements for implementation and securing approval and funding for the launch of a new CDC product. As Head of CDC, Paul is responsible for driving TPT’s CDC strategy and overseeing the successful delivery of this innovative retirement solution, which is planned to launch next year.

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Hannah English

Head of DC Corporate Consulting, Hymans Robertson

Hannah is a Partner and Head of our DC Corporate Consulting services.
She has extensive experience in defined contribution pension schemes and is responsible for the management and advising on the strategic direction of numerous high profile corporate clients. In particular, Hannah specialises in DC pension scheme design, change and implementation.
Hannah joined Hymans Robertson in September 2013, and qualified as an actuary in 2018. This has enabled her to consider joined up DB, DC and more recently CDC pension strategies.

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Maisie Flower

Financial Wellbeing Specialist, Hargreaves Lansdown

Maisie has been working with corporate clients at HL since 2020, spending 12 months in the Client Support team before moving to specialise in pensions in 2021. For the last two years, Maisie has been delivering financial education sessions to the full breadth of HL Workplace members. Maisie is passionate about engaging younger employees with their personal finances, specifically addressing the challenges of saving for their first property and helping develop their confidence with money management decisions.

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Mark Futcher

Head of DC and Financial Wellbeing, Howden

Mark focusses on workplace wealth (including DC), advising a range of UK businesses on, essentially, anything that employers use to recruit, retain and improve their workforce.

He has developed particular expertise in helping employers adapt their employee benefit offering to cope with the changing demands of a modern workforce.

Mark’s extensive experience, clear advice and proactive approach have helped him to become a trusted consultant to a wide range of UK and multi-national businesses.

He was Engaged Investor's Best Individual Pensions Consultant of the Year 2016.

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Jo Gallacher

Content Director, REBA

Jo Gallacher is the Content Director at REBA.

Linkedin

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Max Gist

Head of Business Development, People's Pension

Max Gist is the Head of Business Development at People’s Partnership, provider of People’s Pension. Experience within insurance and banking, whilst specialising in corporate pensions distribution. Heading up business development for People’s Partnership, who have one of the largest commercial Master Trusts with over £40bn assets under management. Based in London and main responsibilities include leading the team to grow and retain existing long term relationships with the top employee benefit consultancy firms and corporate advisers, operating within the UK corporate pensions market with both contract and trust based clients. With responsibility for attracting new business and retaining existing corporate clients. Max has achieved Chartered Associate of the London Institute of Banking & Finance.

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Steph Gold

UK Pensions Communications Lead, Aptia Group

Steph is a pensions and benefits communications specialist with over 20 years' experience designing and delivering strategic communication and engagement programmes for a wide range of clients. Formerly Head of DrumRoll at Barnett Waddingham, she now leads the development of Aptia's pensions communications proposition, advising clients on how to strengthen member understanding, build confidence and drive meaningful engagement across pensions. She is particularly focused on helping members navigate increasing complexity through clear, effective and accessible communications.

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Alyshia Harrington-Clark

Commercial Master Trusts Lead, The Pensions Regulator

Alyshia Harrington-Clark is Segment Lead for Commercial Master Trusts at The Pensions Regulator, a role she recently took on in Summer 2025. This involves leading a multidisciplinary team of specialists, who primarily focus on supervising insurer and consultant-backed Master Trusts. Her team also has specifical responsibilities for Pension Schemes Act implementation work, for example on value for money and scale. 

Before joining TPR, Alyshia worked for Pensions UK, across strategic and DC policy roles, leading on a broad variety of matters on behalf of the industry, notably decumulation, automatic enrolment, lifetime savings and adequacy policy. Before that she worked at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), in roles focused on institutional investment, asset management, market abuse and, latterly, competition. She also has some international regulatory experience, having been seconded to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) working on MiFID II and financial innovation. 

She has held Chartered MSCI status since 2016.

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Caroline Harwood

National Head of Employment Tax, BDO

Caroline leads the Employment Tax Team in London and has over 30 years’ experience specialising in all aspects of employment taxes. This includes the off-payroll working rules (IR35), employment status for tax, termination/settlement payments, employment tax implications of agile working arrangements, management team advice on transactions, employee benefit reviews etc.

Caroline writes articles on employment tax and incentives issues and present widely at both industry and client events. Her clients range from fast growing entrepreneurial businesses to multinationals, FTSE100 and household names.

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James Hawkins

Senior Manager, Isio

James continues to lead Isio’s research into the DC Decumulation market. He joined Isio in 2019 and has worked with DC clients for 10+ years. During his time at Isio he has worked with a range of DC clients, including leading some of the largest “DC change” projects in the market, ongoing advisory for Trustees, and investment advisory for Master Trusts. In 2023 James took responsibility to lead Isio’s research project into Decumulation.

Over the last 3 years he has worked with an independent academic from the University of Manchester, leading experts from around the world, managed a project with an external firm to undertake “on the ground” user research (e.g. interviews, focus groups, surveys), and engaged with Regulators in the UK and Australia regarding the challenges presented by Default Decumulation. James will join us to present a view on the lessons to be learned from overseas DC markets, including the Americas and Australia.

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Jill Henderson

Head of Workplace Strategic Relationships, Scottish Widows

Jill celebrates 28yrs at Scottish Widows this year, having spent most of this time in and around Workplace Pensions.

Jill is the Head of Workplace Strategic Relationships, building relationships with Financial advisers, consultancies and workplace clients.

Previous roles include interim Head of Workplace Relationships, and Partnership Director.

Jill has a long-standing passion for financial equality, is Co-Chair of the Sottish Widows Women In Retirement workstream.

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Mark Hewitson

Head of Client Development, WEALTH at work

Mark has many years of experience in financial services, including delivering service innovation and pension scheme member services for major FTSE companies.
He leads the team responsible for developing and implementing a range of financial education and guidance services for our existing clients and for companies and Trustee boards across the UK.
Mark also actively manages partnerships with major institutes for retirement savings professionals including the Pensions Management Institute and Pensions Policy Institute and leads the development of our at-retirement services for workplace pension schemes and pension scheme members.

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Steven Hill

Head of Policy and External Affairs, Royal London

Steven is Head of Policy & External Affairs at Royal London, the UK's largest mutual life, pensions and investment company. He leads Royal London’s engagement with government and regulators across pensions, savings, and mutuals policy. Steven has extensive experience shaping public policy and regulatory reform, working with ministers, officials and parliamentarians on issues impacting consumers. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events, providing insight on political and policy developments affecting the long-term savings industry.

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Susan Hope

Business Development Director, Scottish Widows

Susan Hope is a Business Development Director at Scottish Widows, where she leads the Workplace Adviser BD team, working with employers and advisers to achieve better retirement outcomes for employees in the UK.

As a Chartered Financial Planner, with over 30 years’ experience in pensions and financial services, Susan is a recognised voice on the UK gender pension gap and broader inequalities in retirement. She is part of the team behind Scottish Widows Women and Retirement research, now in its 21st year.

She is focused on turning insight into practical actions that employers and schemes can implement. Susan combines technical expertise with lived experience bringing a grounded real-world perspective to the challenges many savers face, particularly around career breaks, caregiving and financial confidence. She is a regular speaker across industry events and media. Susan is known for her direct, engaging style and her ability to connect strategy with what changes member behaviour

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Frederick Hopkins

Head of Business Development, Retirement and Financial Wellbeing, WEALTH at work

Fred Hopkins is the Head of Business Development for Retirement and Financial Wellbeing at WEALTH at work, bringing over 25 years of experience in financial services and workplace pensions.
Fred is now responsible for building and delivering tailored financial wellbeing solutions for businesses - helping them provide meaningful support that meets the diverse needs of their people.
Outside of work, Fred completed the John O’Groats to Lands End Challenge in 2025, cycling 933 miles over 12 days to raise money for charity. When he’s not on the bike, he enjoys spending time with his family, travelling, watching shows and swimming.

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Fraser Kerr

Head of ii Advice, interactive investor

Fraser Kerr is Head of ii Advice and a member of the leadership team at interactive investor. A qualified financial planner and experienced financial services leader, he has built his career helping clients achieve better financial outcomes while leading the growth and development of modern financial advice businesses. He is passionate about expanding access to financial planning and improving financial wellbeing through high-quality advice.

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Milan Makhecha

Senior Managing Director and Head of Sales, LifeSight

Milan Makhecha is a Senior Managing Director and Head of Sales for LifeSight, with 25 years’ experience in the pensions industry. He leads new business for LifeSight, WTW’s defined contribution master trust, with responsibility for distribution strategy, developing prospect and intermediary relationships, and driving the growth for LifeSight across the UK market.

Since joining WTW in January 2019, Milan has played a central role in establishing LifeSight as a leading master trust provider, leading numerous successful competitive tenders and building strong relationships across the intermediary community. He has supported some of the UK’s largest employers through provider selection and transition to LifeSight.

Prior to WTW, Milan was at Aon, where he was closely involved in the development and launch of Aon’s DC pension solutions, including their master trust. He is also a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

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Alderman Bronek Masojada

City of London Corporation

Alderman Bronek Masojada is the former CEO of Hiscox and Alderman for the Ward of Billingsgate. He now holds a number of chair and non-executive roles across insurance, wealth management and the charitable sector, and has been formally supported for the Mayoralty in 2027/28, subject to election.

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Priya Narwani

Director – Benefits, Mobility & HR Operations (EMEA), Bain Capital

With more than 20 years of experience spanning Global Mobility, Compensation and Benefits, Tax and HR Operations, Priya has worked across a range of industries and international workforces, building functions from the ground up and leading transformation initiatives. Most recently, she led the development of a regional benefits philosophy, aligning benefits programmes to common principles while reflecting corporate values, market practice and local needs.

Coming from a family of small business owners, Priya brings a commercial and pragmatic perspective to her work. She is passionate about designing programmes that deliver meaningful value for both employers and employees, recognising that different cultural, family and financial circumstances shape how individuals experience and value workplace benefits.

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Stewart Patterson

LifeSight Innovation Managing Director, LifeSight

Stew is a qualified actuary and experienced pensions professional. He is responsible for leading the discovery and design of some of the most significant areas of innovation and future developments for LifeSight, WTW’s £30bn DC master trust. LifeSight's ambitious target is securing better pension outcomes for people all over the country, and a lot of Stew’s focus is currently around decumulation solutions, support for members making retirement decisions and overall member engagement.

Stew has previously had a variety of roles in WTW, including scheme actuary appointments to a number of DB schemes as well as leading a specialist derisking team, before joining the LifeSight team where he is now the proposition lead.

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Juliet Pithie

Customer Experience Delivery Lead, Standard Life

Since joining Standard Life in 2021, Juliet has led a range of customer engagement and retirement initiatives, including the launch of a Pension Consultation Service, Standard Life's Retirement Hub and digital retirement planning tools. She currently leads the development of Standard Life's 1st Targeted Support journey and is passionate about making pensions simpler and helping more people achieve a good retirement.

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Adele Ray

Head of DC Client Development , Mercer UK

Adele joined Mercer UK in July 2025 as Head of DC Client Development and is responsible for driving growth in the DC team. With a strong focus on strategic development and client engagement, Adele is dedicated to expanding Mercer’s influence in the defined contribution (DC) space. Prior to joining Mercer, Adele served as Business Development Director at Legal & General Asset Management, primarily responsible for growing LGIM's DC business. She is passionate about pensions and committed to delivering solutions that serve the best interests of UK savers, with the aim of ensuring a more secure and comfortable retirement for all future retirees.

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David Rhodes

Senior Distribution Strategy Manager, People's Pension

David joined People's Pension in March 2025, with over 35 year's experience in financial services and workplace pensions across DC trust & contract, relationship management, people leadership and acquisition & integration projects. He believes passionately in workplace pensions as a gateway to financial inclusion, good customer outcomes and fairness for savers.

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Craig Rickman

Personal Finance Editor, interactive investor

Craig became personal finance editor at interactive investor in July 2023. He has written about personal finance and wealth management for almost a decade, including four years at the Financial Times Group. Prior to this, Craig spent eight years working as a regulated financial adviser, holding the CII Level 4 Diploma in Financial Planning. Craig’s expert views on the retirement landscape are regularly featured in the national media, including publications such as The Times, The Telegraph, and The Financial Times and he frequently guests on interactive investor’s On the Money podcast.

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Alex Samson

Senior CX AI Manager, Standard Life

Alex Samson leads the Customer AI strategy across the Pensions & Savings business. He is responsible for developing and scaling AI solutions that support customers throughout their retirement journey, while helping colleagues deliver more efficient and personalised service. Drawing on experience across financial services, commercial technology and AI innovation, Alex works at the intersection of customer experience, digital transformation and responsible AI, with a particular focus on delivering practical outcomes within regulated environments.

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Sarah Steel

Head of Market Relations, Aptia Group

Sarah leads Aptia’s engagement with key stakeholders, ensuring services continue to evolve in line with the needs of pension schemes, sponsors, and trustees.
She brings over 30 years experience in the pensions sector, having held senior roles at NatWest Cushon, Aon and Hymans Robertson, as well as two years running her own company providing financial wellbeing services to a range of clients.

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Matt Swinburne-Johnson

Business Development Director, Heywood

Matt brings many years of experience working with Financial Services companies, including several FTSE 100 and global organisations. He has extensive Defined Benefit pensions knowledge from his time during the Pensions Review and from his time at an actuarial consultancy.More recently, he has worked on solutions for financial planning, open banking, financial wellbeing, pensions dashboards and pension risk transfer.

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Janine Tumilowicz

Engagement Director, Scottish Widows

Janine Tumilowicz is Engagement Director at Scottish Widows, leading workplace pension engagement initiatives that help employers and employees achieve better financial outcomes. Passionate about making pensions more accessible and relevant, she works closely with clients, advisers and industry stakeholders to increase engagement, improve understanding and support long-term financial wellbeing and is also a passionate advocate for closing the gender pension gap.

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Richard Turner

Senior Corporate Distribution Manager, Hargreaves Lansdown

Richard has been working with corporate clients at Hargreaves Lansdown since 2006. He enjoys helping employers put plans in place to make it easy for employees to save and invest for a better future. Previously, Richard worked as a financial adviser to high-net-worth clients with various providers. 

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Andrew Walker

Business Development Director, Heywood

Andrew has spent the bulk of his career in professional consulting businesses across Reward and Benefits, HR, Employment Law and more recently Pensions during which time he has specialised in creating and executing strategies designed to deliver value across sales, marketing, business development and consulting.

For much of his working life Andrew worked for global information and compliance services provider Wolters Kluwer where among other roles, he ran the very successful Croner Reward business unit. Immediately before joining pensions software specialists Heywood, he was Businesses Development Director and Insurance and EB specialist Personal Group where he was also interim sales director for over a year. Earlier in his career Andrew was Consulting and Commercial Director for the Reward Group, a long-time leader in the specialist field of pay and benefits information and consulting.

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Paul Waters

Partner and Head of DC Markets, Hymans Robertson

Paul joined Hymans in 2005 and has worked across a number of different roles in the workplace pension and retail wealth markets.

As Head of DC Markets, Paul oversees our DC and CDC pension market strategy covering own trust, master trust, corporate and provider/asset manager clients. Paul is passionate about delivering the best possible outcomes for UK savers and spends most of his time working with the industry to achieve this.

Paul is also responsible for our Digital Wealth business area, overseeing our suite of Apps, APIs and strategic asset allocations, experience he draws on in developing guided and advised accumulation and decumulation solutions for the workplace and retail wealth markets.

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Steve Watson

Director of Policy and Research, Cushon

Steve is Cushon’s Director of Policy & Research. He has spent over 30 years of his career advising organisations on all aspects of pensions and workplace savings both in the UK and internationally.

LinkedIn

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Geoff White

British author and investigative journalist

As one of the world’s leading journalists covering organised crime and tech, Geoff White has spent decades investigating the shadowy forces of fraudsters, hackers and money launderers. His work’s been featured by BBC News, Audible, Sky News, The Sunday Times and many more.

His latest book, Rinsed, reveals technology’s impact on the underground industry of money laundering and was published by Penguin Random House in June 2024 (“Riveting” – The Financial Times).

His last book, The Lazarus Heist was published by Penguin Random House in June 2022. It sprang from the hit 20-part BBC podcast series of the same name, which Geoff co-hosted and which immediately ranked number one in the UK Apple chart and within the top 7 in the US.

Geoff’s first book, Crime Dot Com was published in August 2020 by Reaktion Books and was one of Wired magazine’s “Most Fascinating Books Read in 2020”.

He has written and presented two major podcast series for Audible. The Dark Web exposed the shadow internet created by the US military and now home to hackers, crooks and freedom fighters. It has been a top ten hit on the platform since its launch in 2017. Artificial Intelligence: Friend or Foe? revealed the origins of AI, and showed how the technology is seeping into everyday life.

Geoff’s own podcast series Cybercrime Investigations takes listeners inside the world of an investigative journalist, detailing the twists and turns as the story unfolds.

He was also the co-creator of The Secret Life of Your Mobile Phone, a live, interactive phone hacking stage performance which showed how the global technology industry is harvesting the data leaking from your handset. The show was a sell–out hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2017, and has been performed at music festivals, political conferences and for corporate clients.

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Sarah White

Director of Reward and Pensions, The Crown Estate

Sarah White is Director of Reward and Pensions at The Crown Estate. With a career spanning pensions consultancy and senior in-house roles, she brings deep technical expertise alongside a strong commercial perspective.

She is particularly focused on how employers can work more effectively with trustee boards and advisers to drive better outcomes for members. Sarah has a track record of fostering collaborative, high-performing governance arrangements, and is passionate about the role independent trustees can play in bringing fresh insight, strengthening decision-making and unlocking greater value from pension schemes.

She is dedicated to connecting pensions  to the total reward offering, ensuring that pensions offered  are relevant, engaging and impactful for today’s workforce.

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Louise Whyte

Head of DC Sales & Strategy, L&G

Louise Whyte is Head of DC Sales & Strategy at L&G where she leads the development and execution of strategic initiatives across the DC business. With extensive experience in asset management, Louise has built a strong reputation for delivering client solutions and forging lasting partnerships with employers, pension schemes trustees and their advisers. Louise is passionate about financial wellbeing and equality in pension savings. 

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Martin Willis

Partner, Corporate DC Pensions, Howden

Martin is passionate about driving forward standards in the pensions industry to support people saving for their later life and leads strategic DC advice to a wide range of UK organisations. In his 25 years working with DC pension schemes, he’s helped employers and trustees chart a path through a constantly changing legislative environment.

Martin specialises in DC design and ongoing governance, DC scheme consolidation, and supporting employers that participate in public sector or defined benefit schemes with complex retirement needs.

He has recently held the position of Chair on the Society of Pension Professionals’ DC Committee, and has contributed to work for Pensions UK on contribution fairness. He regularly contributes to calls for evidence and consultations from parties such as the Department for Work and Pensions, the FCA and the Pensions Regulator. Key focuses in recent times have included value for money and adequacy in retirement, including for the self-employed.

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