Members' Panel

Catherine (who is a member of Nest) was appointed Chair of the Nest Members’ Panel in October 2022 having been a member of that Panel since 2017. She qualified as a barrister and most of her early career was spent as an investment banker. She has held a number of public appointments, notably in the health sector, including her current role as Senior Independent Director of an NHS mental health and social care trust in Kent and a role in a large acute London hospital trust.  She is an Independent Panel Member for government departments BEIS and DLUHC and sits on the High Speed 2 Need to Sell scheme panel. She holds two specialist judicial appointments with the Ministry of Justice, sitting in Tribunals. She is a former Practice Director of a firm of employment/pensions solicitors.

Christopher is Senior Policy Manager at Age UK, the national charity for older people. He leads Age UK’s public policy work on private pensions, employment and skills, which involves representing the interests of consumers and older people to Government, regulators and industry. He also manages a team covering a diverse range of policy issues, including housing, transport and equalities policy. He has worked at Age UK since May 2010. Prior to this he worked at the awarding body City & Guilds, where he managed its Parliamentary and public policy activity, and before that at Lansons, a public affairs agency specialising in financial services.

Nigel has extensive experience as an advocate and representative of pension scheme members. Until August 2020 he was a National Officer at the Communication Workers’ Union where for 20 years, he was the lead negotiator on pension issues in the telecoms and financial services sectors, dealing with private sector defined benefit and defined contribution schemes. He was a member of the Airwave Solutions DC Governance Committee from 2007 to 2020.

Nigel is a Member Nominated Trustee Director of the BT Pension Scheme, and a trustee of the CWU 2000 pension.

Amy is a Nest member and freelance singer-songwriter, working and touring across the UK, Europe and the US, with extensive customer service experience and consumer psychology insight. She works with community projects such as Girls Rock London, which builds self-esteem and empowers young females through music and is also a proud Musicians' Union London Regional Committee member.  Amy also serves on London Young Workers Sub Committee and TUC Young Workers' Forum contributing to key issues affecting entrepreneurs, low earners and youth. In 2018, Amy attended the TUC Young Workers’ Conference to talk about sexism and sexual harassment in the music industry and is very driven in empowering members to make informed decisions today about their financial future.

Leon is a Chartered Accountant and qualified financial planner. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments and the UK CFA Society. He is a forensic accountant and valuation expert, where he advises on financial elements of litigations, international arbitrations and M&A transactions. Leon has also worked as a freelance writer and has contributed to a popular finance and investing blog where he has written about pensions, saving and investing. Leon believes that saving for retirement is a crucial step to lifelong happiness. He hopes that by being part of the Nest Members' Panel he can help to increase members' engagement in saving for retirement.

Rachel was previously Policy Manager at ShareAction, a charity established to promote transparency and responsible investment practices by pension funds and other institutional investors. While in this role, she engaged with UK policy makers, responded to consultations and produced briefings on a range of issues relating to the rules governing pension funds, the investment system and corporate reporting. She previously trained as a solicitor in the City of London, gaining experience in pensions and financial services law. Rachel has since re-trained and now practises as a counsellor. Rachel wants to help members of all ages and income brackets to get a good deal for their future, in terms of both their financial outcomes and the world in which they will live.

David has a wealth of auto enrolment experience, having worked at the National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) from 2012 to 2015. As Senior Account Manager, David helped a wide range of employers and intermediaries set up and administer their Nest schemes. David remains a member of Nest, now works closely with payroll software and payroll users at Pensionsync Ltd, to ease the burden of auto enrolment administration. He focuses on automating the delivery of member data from payroll to multiple pension providers through Pensionsync. He holds the PMI Certificate in Auto Enrolment.

Earlier in his career, David worked in various consultant and project manager roles at Aquila Heywood implementing pension administration software for public and private sectors, having started out as a trainee actuary with BBS.

Jules has over two decades experience building partnerships within the financial sector, most recently within workplace pensions and Employee Benefits.  Prior to working in the private sector, Jules worked with the TUC on partnerships between employers and trade associations in Financial Services, and was Regional Manager for Financial Capability within the former FSA, and then National Partnerships Manager with the Money Advice Service.   She was also involved in the development of employer and member communications prior to the roll-out of automatic-enrolment from 2012, and is passionate about financial education and financial well-being.  She has recently contributed to consumer research with Pension Bee, and a keen interest in financial technology and its impact on the pensions industry and member engagement.  Jules brings a combination of informed insight from her own life experiences in relation to the barriers to pension savings and the effects on later life, as well as current experience as a Nest member.

Zoe is currently a People and Development Lead at Unifrog, a company committed to levelling the playing field for school leavers. Zoe is a Nest member and additionally worked at Nest from 2020 to 2022. She hopes that by being part of the Nest Members’ Panel she can help members to increase their awareness and engage more with their pensions.

Dominic is a self-employed member of Nest and an independent consultant specialising in pensions, financial services and consumer protection. He has worked for the Financial Services Consumer Panel, Which? and New City Agenda, delivering improvements for consumers including a cap on pension charges and stronger protection against payment scams. Following the introduction of pension freedoms he has written several reports on how consumers can be helped and supported to make better decisions when accessing their pensions. He is a member of the Vanguard Independent Governance Committee, the Financial Reporting Council Advisory Panel and the Pensions Dashboards Programme Steering Group.