Bio:
I am a member nominated trustee at The Pensions Trust, a multi-employer fund serving the not-for-profit sector in the UK. We have 129,000 members and more than 4000 employers in our scheme. I was elected in December 2007.
My day job since August 2008 is executive director at FairPensions, a registered charity campaigning for responsible investment by UK pension funds and the fund managers who serve them. Previously I worked for eight years as a community organiser were I gained much hard won experience and insight into the dynamics of citizen participation. My personal interest in the pensions arena is figuring out how working people who are saving for retirement can be motivated and mobilised to hold institutions investing on their behalf accountable and focused on long-term sustainable investing. The rapid emergence of defined contribution schemes as the norm in many sectors of our economy creates far greater exposure to investment risk for millions of people. Whilst this is deeply worrying it should provide an incentive for many more people to question patterns and styles of investing which do not serve their long term interests.
Interests:
As a trustee I am most interested in your working group on fiduciary duty of long-term investors.
e-mail: catherine.howarth@fairpensions.org.uk
