Jo Blanden is Professor of Economics at the University of Surrey, where she has worked since 2005, and a Visiting Researcher at the LSE. She was worked extensively on intergenerational mobility, and her most recent publication considers the intergenerational transmission of housing and wealth inequalities. She is an Expert Advisor to the Social Mobility Commission.   

Clive joined M&G in September 2023. With over 30 years of experience in financial services, he joins us from LV= where he was Managing Director of Protection, Savings and Retirement. Over his career Clive has built deep expertise within the Life and Pensions sector, including 11 years at Aviva Life UK, five of which were as Managing Director of Retirement Solutions. Clive represents M&G on the Board of the Association of British Insurers (ABI). 

Jim was appointed CEO of the Equity Release Council in June 2018. He joined from Reform think tank, where he was Deputy Director and Head of Research. Prior to this he was an Expert Adviser at the Department for Work and Pensions, supporting Welfare Reform Ministers on a specific welfare reform project. Jim has extensive experience of retirement and social care funding having led the Corporate Affairs functions at specialist life assurers Britannic Retirement Solutions, Just Retirement and Partnership Assurance. He is one of ILC’s Insight Experts and is an ambassador for Age Irrelevance a campaign set up by the Greengross Foundation.

Molly joined the Resolution Foundation in February 2022. Her work focuses on intergenerational fairness and wealth inequality. Before joining the Foundation, Molly worked at an economic consultancy where she provided research, analysis, and advice on local economic development and innovation policy. Molly has a BSc in Economics and Mathematics from the University of Leeds. 

Nida Broughton oversees BIT’s work across consumer policy, business regulation, economic growth and EDI. Nida, and her team, work with partners across the public, private and third sector to apply behavioural science to tackle social impact challenges: improving productivity, creating a sustainable and inclusive economy and shaping markets to enable consumers to make better choices for themselves. Nida is lead author of BIT’s flagship publication, The Behavioural Economy, and oversees BIT’s groundbreaking work on financial capability and reducing gambling-related harms. Her research on central bank communications has been published in the Journal of Monetary Economics.  

Jonathan is an Associate Director at IFS and Head of the Retirement, Savings, and Ageing sector. He is a Co-Principal Investigator of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and a Director of the Pensions Review, a review of the UK pension system and of the future of financial security in retirement. Most of his research focuses on understanding economic activity in later life, pensions, saving for retirement, and their interactions with public policies. He also leads the Deaton Review Country Studies project, which examines labour market and income inequalities in 17 European and North American countries. He is a former editor of the flagship IFS reports on Living Standards, Inequality, and Poverty. 

Joanna is Chief Executive of Independent Age. Previously, she was CEO of Money Advice Trust, the charity running National Debtline and Business Debtline, whose vision is to help people across the UK to tackle their debts and manage their money with confidence. Joanna is a director of the financial services trade association UK Finance, representing vulnerable consumers and Chair of the Advisory Board at Birmingham University’s Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management. She is also a Chartered Director and a Director of Fair 4 All Finance, which is using dormant assets to increase financial inclusion. 

Tom was appointed MD of Retirement in May 23, after a highly successful tenure as Managing Director of Home Finance and has played a key role in bringing together Individual Annuity and Home Finance into one Retirement business. Tom’s wealth of expertise and leadership is a real asset in driving forward this important part of the business. In his position as Home Finance MD, Tom has delivered exceptional outcomes. Tom attended the global Harvard Business School leadership development programme and combined with his deep understanding of our markets and the industry we work in, he plays a vital role in Canada Life’s focus to continue understanding and meeting our customers’ evolving needs. 

Joining Key Group as Chairman in January 2018, Steve Groves brought with him considerable experience gained across a career in financial services. Having started as an investment actuary at Aviva, Steve rose to become Chief Financial Officer and then Chief Executive Officer at FTSE-Listed, Partnership Group plc.  Over his 11 years at the specialist annuity provider, he guided the company through its initial private equity deal to its market listing and subsequent merger with Just Retirement. In addition to acting as Chair of Key Group, Steve is Chairman of Retirement Bridge, a Non-executive Director at Clara Pensions and a founding member of PEPTalks – a peer to peer learning community designed to support private equity backed CEOs. 

Tish is a barrister and Founder and Joint Chairman of the Society of Later life Advisers. She has worked extensively in the areas of policy development, financial, legal training and advice delivery in relation to older people and is involved in the delivery of national standard setting and accreditation for financial and legal advisers in the older client sector. Her areas of expertise encompass the retirement market and how policy impacts on retirement and care. Tish has worked with government departments and a variety of third sector and private organisations in developing and supporting good practice in relation to older and vulnerable clients. She was particularly involved with the implementation and delivery of the Care Act 2014 and sat on 2 working parties at the Department of Health which contributed to drafting parts of the legislation. She is Vice Chair of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) in her home county of Kent and a Founder Member of Solicitor’s for the Elderly for which she is Head of Business Development. 

Mick McAteer is founder and Co-Director of The Financial Inclusion Centre, a UK not-for-profit policy and research group. The Centre’s mission is to promote a financial system and markets that works for the environment, real economy, and society. He is a director of Action for Financial Inclusion (AfFI), a community interest company set up to turn policy ideas for promoting financial inclusion into action.  

He is Chair of non-profit Registry Trust which operates the Register of Judgments for the Ministry of Justice, and a board member of the Irish Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman. He is a member of the UK Regulators Network (UKRN) Expert Panel and the Bank of England’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Engagement Forum.  

Previously, he was Chair of the anti-poverty charity Z2K, and Deputy Chair of the Consumer Council of Northern Ireland. He was a board member of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)/ Financial Services Authority (FSA), chaired the FCA’s External Risk and Strategy Committee and was on the FSA Oversight Committee that implemented the split of the FSA into the FCA and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).  

At EU level, he was Chair of the European Commission’s Financial Services User Group (FSUG) advising EU policymakers on matters relating to financial markets and affecting financial users. 

He was with Which? for 13 years and formulated the organisation’s policy on financial services. He led the work on exposing major scandals such as PPI mis-selling, and work on reform of pensions, insurance, and banking industries. Prior to this, he worked for five years for two major fund management firms in the City of London.  

He was a board member of the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) Professional Oversight Board, a non-executive director of The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS), and a board member of ShareAction (the movement for Responsible Investment), and board member of CARITAS (Westminster). 

Anusha is the Managing Director, Individual Life and Pensions at M&G Life. She has P&L responsibility for M&G’s closed book of business as well as developing the solutions offered to M&G’s more than 4 million customers in the UK. She is an experienced financial services professional with wide-ranging experience across the commercial and risk aspects of life insurance.  Prior to joining M&G in June 2020 she worked for the Bank of England where she supervised the UK’s largest life insurance groups. An actuary by profession, Anusha has held various roles, both in the UK and internationally, covering a range of areas including product development, strategy and M&A consulting. 

Shelley has 20 years’ experience in pensions and joined the Living Wage Foundation in 2021 to lead the delivery of Living Pension. Formerly at Friends Provident and Aviva, she spent a decade as a Client Relationship Manager and later worked on digital services for workplace pensions. Shelley was awarded the Unsung Hero award at the Professional Pensions ‘Women in Pensions’ awards in 2023 for her work on bringing Living Pension to life. 

Daniela is Head of Policy Research at the PPI and oversees the research conducted by the Policy Research team. She has a wealth of experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative research into all aspects of State and private pensions policy. Daniela writes articles for the national and trade press, and presents to domestic and international audiences, including radio and television appearances.

Prior to working in research and policy, Daniela was a social worker with vulnerable adults and children. Daniela has an MSc in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics.

Jordi joined the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) in 2022 as a Senior Policy Advisor on the DC, Master Trusts and Lifetime Savings team. The areas that he is responsible for include tax policy, pension adequacy & automatic enrolment, Small Pots and the State Pension. He is one of the authors of the PLSA’s Five Steps to Better Pensions series.  

 He previously worked in the automotive lobbying space. Alongside his role at the PLSA, he recently completed a Masters in Terrorism and Political Violence at the University of St Andrews. In his spare time, Jordi serves as an Army Reservist. 

Prior to the dissolution of Parliament, the Rt Hon Sir Stephen Timms has been East Ham’s MP from 1994 and is standing again at this General Election. He is also the Labour Party’s Faith Envoy. He was the Shadow Minister for Employment from 2010 until September 2015 and previously sat on the Exiting the European Union Select Committee. Up until the General Election was called, Stephen chaired the Work and Pensions Select Committee and was the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Switzerland and Lichtenstein. 

Stephen entered Parliament in 1994 and held a number of ministerial posts under the previous Labour Government including Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Financial Secretary to the Treasury. Before entering Parliament, Stephen worked in the telecommunications industry for fifteen years, first for Logica and then for Ovum. He managed Ovum’s telecommunications reports business until his election in 1994.  

Stephen received a knighthood for his political and public service in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2022. He is also a member of the Ramblers Association and the former Chair of Christians on the Left.