Pension Reform Group

The Pensions Reform Group was set-up in 1999 "and is chaired by Rt Hon Frank Field MP. It has been founded to identify weaknesses in the current pensions system and to present plans aimed at providing for a simple and workable, long term settlement that will allow everyone retiring after a working life to live free of poverty."

People (2009)

Accessed July 2012:

• Frank Field was Minister for Welfare Reform between May 1997 and July 1998. He was elected to parliament in 1979 as Member for Birkenhead. Frank Field was previously director of the Child Poverty Action Group and of the Low Pay Unit. A former chairman of the Social Security Select Committee, he is the author of numerous works on welfare, low pay and social issues.
• Sir Steve Robson retired as Second Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury in January 2001. He joined the Treasury after leaving university. His early career included a period as private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and a two-year secondment to Investors in Industry plc (3i). From 1997 until his retirement, Sir Steve’s responsibilities included the legal framework for regulation of the UK financial services industry and public private partnerships. He is a non-executive director of Partnerships UK, Cazenove, Xstrata and the Royal Bank of Scotland.
• Nicola King is a former director of Rothschilds where she was responsible inter alia for the Government Advisory team and latterly the UK Defence & Aerospace advisory team. Her advisory experience is significantly focused on the restructuring and transformation of public and private sector businesses and on the development and implementation of new structures and products within complex environments having regard to the balancing of the diverse interests of many parties. She is currently on a maternity career break.
• Simon Linnett is the executive vice chairman of Investment Banking at Rothschild in London. He has devoted the largest part of his professional life to working at the public/private interface having worked on the majority of the major privatisations and, since 1997, all but one of the corporate based PPPs. He also looks after Rothschild's global transport effort.
• Tim Lefroy heads Radical, a consultancy specialising in corporate positioning and transformation. He is a former CEO of advertising agency Young & Rubicam and the architect of the famous ‘Tell Sid’ campaign for the British Gas privatisation. He is a senior figure in the marketing and communications industry has wide experience in both public issues and personal savings.
• Ben Forsyth is Research Secretary to the Pensions Reform Group. He has formerly worked for Frank Field as his research secretary in the House of Commons, and is currently working for Prudential.

Supporters and Previous Contributors

Accessed July 2012:

• David Willetts MP is Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary and has been the Member of Parliament for Havant since 1992. He has worked at HM Treasury, the Number 10 Policy Unit, and served as Paymaster General in the last Conservative Government. He is a member of the Gobal Aging Commission and a Visiting Professor at the Cass Business School
• Kate Barker was appointed as an external member of the Monetary Policy Committee with effect from 1 June 2001. From 1994-2001 Ms Barker was Chief Economic Adviser at the CBI. She was previously Chief European Economist at Ford of Europe (1985-1994). She was appointed (by Government) in April 2003 to lead independent Review of UK Housing Supply.
• Paul Myners is Chairman of Trustees of Tate and the Board of Directors of Marks and Spencer and the Guardian Media Group. He is a retired fund manager.
• Howard Flight was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for Arundel and South Downs in the 1997 General Election. In September 2001, he was appointed Shadow Paymaster General and in July 2002 was promoted to Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Howard has 30 years experience in the investment management industry, twenty of which were in establishing and building with Tim Guinness, Guinness Flight Global Asset Management, and he is a Director of Investec Asset Management.
• Alison O'Connell was formerly Pensions Policy Adviser to the Liberal Democrat Party and is now Director of the Pensions Policy Institute.
• Roger Urwin is global head of investment consulting at Watson Wyatt LLP, which includes practices in 26 countries and includes over 350 staff. Roger, as well as working on developing an aligned and top quality investment consulting offering in all markets, is also in charge of thought leadership.
• Alan Deacon is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Leeds. He was a member of the ESRC Research Group on Care, Values and the Future of Welfare (1999-2004) and is a former Chair of the UK Social Policy Association (2001-4). He has written widely on New Labour and welfare reform and his most recent book is Perspectives on Welfare Open University Press 2002.
• Paul Ormerod is the author of 'The Death of Economics' (1994), 'Butterfly Economics' (1998) and 'Why Most Things Fail' (April 2005). He is currently a director of Volterra Consulting, having previously been Director of Economics at the Henley Centre for Forecasting, Head of the Economic Assessment Unit at the 'Economist' newspaper group, and senior UK macroeconomic forecaster at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
• Lord Vinson of Roddam Dene, LVO, DL, is a Conservative peer with an active interest in pensions, and their deregulation in small businesses. He has been a chairman of the Institute of Economic Affairs, a director of the Centre for Policy Studies and was director of Barclays Bank UK during the 1980s. His publications include “Personal Pensions for All.”
• Peter Gray is the chairman of the welfare reform unit, Hertford College, Oxford University.
• Matthew Owen formerly worked for Morgan Stanley and has worked as Research Secretary to Frank Field. Together they co-authored “Private Pensions for All: squaring the circle” Society (1993) and “National Pensions Saving Plan: universalising private pension provision” (1994) for the Fabian Society.
• Tom Ross is Principal and Actuary at Aon Limited.