Board biographies

Michael O'Higgins

Chair

Michael O'Higgins became chair of The Pensions Regulator in January 2011, having previously been chairman of Alexander Mann Solutions. He has also been chairman of the Audit Commission since October 2006.

Michael is also a non-executive director of HM Treasury and chair of the Treasury Group Audit Committee, chair of Investec Structured Products Calculus VCT plc and a non-executive director of Oxford Medical Diagnostics plc. He is also the chair of the charity Centrepoint.

Previously, Michael was a managing partner with PA Consulting, leading its Government and IT Consulting Groups, latterly as a director on its International Board. Prior to that he was a partner at Price Waterhouse, worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris and held academic posts at the University of Bath, the London School of Economics, Harvard University and the Australian National University. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Bath.

Bill Galvin

Chief executive

Bill Galvin became chief executive of The Pensions Regulator in January 2011 (and prior to this was acting chief executive from May 2010).

In October 2008 Bill was appointed executive director for strategic development at The Pensions Regulator.

Bill was formerly in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), where he led on pensions protection policy.

Prior to joining DWP, he worked as a strategy consultant at IBM Consulting and in strategy and marketing for IBM Global Services.

In August 2010, Bill was appointed a non-executive director for The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS). 

Alan Pickering CBE

Non-executive director

Alan is chairman of BESTrustees and is a trustee of four of that firm’s clients. He was with Watson Wyatt between 1992 and January 2009.

Before that, he spent 20 years with the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbers Union where he gained considerable experience in many aspects of employee relations, pensions and personal finance. He is chairman of the Plumbing Industry Pension Scheme, having been closely involved with the development of many other industry-wide schemes.

In 2005 he became a trustee of the Life Academy (Pre-Retirement Association), assuming the charity's chairmanship in November 2006.

He was a member of the Occupational Pensions Board from 1991 to 1997, serving as its deputy chairman during 1993. He was chairman of the National Association of Pension Funds from 1999 to 2001. And from 2001 to 2004 he served as chairman of the European Federation for Retirement Provision.

In 2001 he led a review into the simplification of private pension provision. His report, A Simpler Way to Better Pensions, was published in July 2002.

Chris Swinson OBE

Non-executive director

A chartered accountant, Chris was formerly senior partner of BDO Stoy Hayward.

He served as a council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and was president from 1998 to 1999.

He is Comptroller & Auditor General of Jersey.

Tony Brierley

Non-executive director

Tony is a solicitor and has spent over 20 years in the private equity and venture capital industry.

He was formerly general counsel and company secretary of 3i Group plc, the FTSE100 international private equity business. As a member of 3i's Management Committee he was responsible for the Group's legal, compliance, company secretarial and internal audit functions worldwide.

He now has a portfolio of commercial and public sector non-executive positions.

Isabel Hudson

Non-executive director

Isabel has had an extensive career in financial services in the life, non-life and pensions industries in a number of senior roles, including M&A and as finance director. She has worked both in the UK and in continental Europe.

More recently she was an executive director of Prudential Assurance UK before leaving to set up Synesis Life, one of the new pension buy-out insurers, which was sold at the end of 2008.

She is currently a non-executive director of QBE, a top 20 global non-life insurer, where she has been on the main Board since 2005. She also chairs the Business Development Board of the disability charity, Scope and is a member of the With Profits Committee of Standard Life.

In February 2010 she was appointed a non-executive director on the Board of the Phoenix Group and in June 2011 Isabel joined NHBC's board of directors as deputy chair.

Bruce Rigby

Non-executive director

Bruce has worked in the UK pension industry for more than 30 years and is now Mercer's global chief retirement strategist. In this role, he focuses on the development of new and innovative pension offerings.

He is an actuary and has held a number of leadership roles with Mercer.

Until the end of 2008, Bruce led their global retirement, risk and finance consulting business.

June Mulroy

Executive director

June was The Pensions Regulator’s executive director of business delivery until February 2011 when she became the executive director for defined contributions, governance and administration. This is a core operational function of the organisation, with responsibility for capturing scheme information, mitigating risks to scheme members' benefits and promoting better administration of pension schemes.

An ex-psychologist and chartered accountant, June worked in large corporates and in banking for over 17 years as a dealer / risk analysis specialist and consultant.

Recognising the strong element of change management in all her previous roles, she moved into the NHS and worked in two acute Trusts, one of which was the 'flagship' of the NHS at the time, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Since then she has worked in Switzerland and Paris, the latter being for the United Nations in UNESCO.

Stuart Weatherley

Executive director

Stuart is the executive director of business support operations, covering finance, human resources, information technology, procurement, scheme return & levy and facilities at The Pensions Regulator.

He is an accountant (CIMA) with broad experience of financial and commercial operations in industry at senior management and main board level.

He has also spent many years in management consultancy with Price Waterhouse, working with blue chip and public sector organisations managing change programmes and advising on strategy development and business improvement.

Charles Counsell

Executive director

Charles Counsell is the executive director for employer compliance at The Pensions Regulator, where previously he held the role of programme manager for this stream of work.

Charles has been at the regulator since its inception in 2005, and since 2006 has been involved with the design and delivery of the employer compliance regime.

Over 15 years, Charles has gained experience of setting up and running major business change programmes. As well as is his work in the public sector, Charles has run major programmes of change in the financial services and automotive industries. Many of these programmes have been international, including work in South Africa, the United States, the Middle East and in Europe.

Stephen Soper

Executive director

Stephen Soper is the executive director for defined benefit (DB) at The Pensions Regulator. In this role he is responsible for both policy and operational decisions made about current and future DB regulation.

Stephen previously held the position of head of risk & funding at the regulator where he was responsible for mitigating risks to member benefits, overseeing all DB casework.

Stephen joined the regulator following over 23 years' working in multinational financial services organisations, focusing on banking and insurance.

A Chartered Banker (ACIB) Stephen began his career at RBS within the International Banking Division and subsequently worked at the Allied Dunbar Group, Zurich Financial Services, Eagle Star and Aon. He has held various executive positions including Commercial Bank Treasurer, Board Director, COO of a UK Bank, Restructuring Director and Group Change Director.