The Board
The Board of The Pensions Regulator meets around eight times a year and is made up of the Chair, non-executive members, the Chief Executive and executive directors.
All Board members are appointed by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions following open competition.
Their key responsibilities are:
- overseeing TPR's strategic direction and making key decisions on policy
- ensuring TPR is properly run as a public body and has effective internal controls
- ensuring that statutory and administrative requirements for the use of public funds are complied with
Kirstin Baker - Interim Chair
Biography – Kirstin Baker
Kirstin Baker was appointed Interim Chair of The Pensions Regulator (TPR) on 1 August 2025.
Kirstin Baker has over 20 years' experience in economic and finance roles in the civil service and was most recently Finance Director at HM Treasury. She previously worked as a senior policy official in the Treasury, heading the team responsible for co-ordinating public spending and managing many of the Treasury’s interventions in individual banks in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Kirstin’s earlier career was in EU policy and she worked as a competition official in the European Commission. She has also worked for the Scottish Government, leading policy on infrastructure investment.
Kirstin is a Non-Executive Director and Inquiry Chair at the Competition and Markets Authority. She is also a Non-Executive Director at University Hospitals Sussex, an independent member of Council at Sussex University and a member of the audit committee of Clarion Housing Group.
Kirstin was awarded a CBE in 2011 for her work during the financial crisis.
Nausicaa Delfas - Chief Executive
Biography – Nausicaa Delfas
Nausicaa Delfas was appointed Chief Executive of The Pensions Regulator (TPR) on 1 April 2023.
Before joining TPR, Nausicaa Delfas was Executive Director, Governance, at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Until October 2022, she was Chief Executive and Chief Ombudsman of the Financial Ombudsman Service (interim), clearing its backlogs, and spearheading its strategic, operational and digital transformation, resetting the organisation for the future. Before that, as Executive Director of International she was responsible for the FCA’s international and Brexit strategy and delivery. She has also served as the FCA’s Chief Operating Officer, and previously held other senior roles at the FCA and FSA, including in Supervision, Enforcement, Risk and Policy, across retail and wholesale sectors. She has led innovative and complex transformational initiatives, driving changes in regulation and culture. Before joining the FSA, Nausicaa trained and qualified as a solicitor at City law firm Freshfields in London.
Mandy Clarke - Non-Executive Director
Biography – Mandy Clarke
Mandy Clarke is a chartered HR director with over 25 years’ board level experience in international organisations across a variety of sectors including professional services, defence, engineering and support services. She has undertaken executive roles globally, and operates a management consultancy providing strategic HR, transformation, and project services to clients in the UK and overseas.
Mandy is a Non-Executive Director at Platform Housing Group and chairs the People and Governance Committee. Previously Mandy was the Vice-Chair at LHC Procurement Group, the Co-Chair at the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (‘IPSE’), Deputy Chair/Senior Independent Director at GreenSquareAccord, Deputy Chair at Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership, a Non-Executive Director at Abri and Chair of Wiltshire Air Ambulance. Mandy has extensive experience of chairing committees for remuneration, nominations, governance and people, and membership of committees for audit, risk, finance and treasury.
Chris Hitchen - Non-Executive Director
Biography – Chris Hitchen
Chris has well over 30 years' experience in investment and pensions, most recently as Chair of Border to Coast, the £100 billion pooling company for the Local Government Pension Scheme and as a Board member and Investment Committee Chair at Nest, the pension fund with 13 million members (both of which he helped set up from scratch). He was a long-time CEO at Railpen, the £30 billion pension arrangements for the UK rail industry and was the elected chair of Pensions UK during the Global Financial Crisis 2007-09. He has also been a Board member for the Toronto-based International Centre for Pensions Management (ICPM), and for the UK’s Investor Forum, which promotes strategic dialogue between companies and investors. Chris is Chair of the £20 billion Nuclear Liabilities Fund, tasked with a hundred-year mission to fund the decommissioning of the UK's nuclear power stations, and sits on the board of the Scott Trust Endowment, which backs the Guardian newspaper. He is an actuary and an Honorary Fellow of the CFA Society of the UK.
Katie Kapernaros - Non-Executive Director
Biography – Katie Kapernaros
Katie Kapernaros is an experienced executive in the IT Industry, spending most of her career at IBM, managing large operational teams and budgets. She has lived and worked in Australia, Singapore and the UK, and has managed teams across the world. One of her notable projects was working on the Sydney Olympics.
She now has a portfolio of non-executive roles in the public sector, covering digital, property and health organisations. She has done a lot of voluntary work in the charity and sports arenas, and is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, where she also volunteers on some of their committees.
Tracey McDermott - Non-Executive Director
Biography – Tracey McDermott
Tracey has had a distinguished career spanning the public and private sector. She is a lawyer by background and spent 15 years at the UK Financial Services Authority/Financial Conduct Authority culminating as acting Chief Executive Officer and with previous notable positions having included Director of Enforcement and Financial Crime and Director of Supervision and Authorisations. From 2017 to 2024 she was a member of the Global Management Team of Standard Chartered Bank and their Chief Compliance Officer and Money Laundering Reporting Officer. Following retirement from Standard Chartered she now holds a number of advisory and non-executive roles.
Chris Morson - Non-Executive Director
Biography – Chris Morson
Chris Morson joined the board of The Pension Regulator in April 2020.
He has previously been a Non-Executive Director and Audit Committee member at DVLA from 2013-2020, and at HM Land Registry from 2018-2020 where he has been interim chair of the Audit Committee and a member of Remuneration Committee.
Chris was previously a Non-Executive Director at the Money Advice Service (now part of Money and Pensions Service), as well as Audit and Risk Committee and Nominations Committee member. He is currently a Non-Executive Director at Royal London Asset Management.
He has spent much of his executive career in financial services. Most recently, he has specialised in digital transformation at scale, as Managing Director of the digital business of RBS / NatWest, and then at Virgin Money. Prior to this, he held senior roles as a Strategy Director, Managing Director of a European consumer finance business and as an Operations Director.
Earlier in his career, Chris worked as a management consultant with Price Waterhouse.
Chris has a BSc in Banking and Finance from Loughborough University and attended the London Business School finance programme. He holds an MBA with distinction from Cranfield and has also completed the Financial Times Non-Executive Directors diploma.
George Walker - Non-Executive Director
Biography – George Walker
George Walker joined The Pensions Regulator in 2023 and became Senior Independent Director in 2025. He also currently sits on the Audit and Risk Committee and the Remuneration and People Committee.
George has over 20 years’ experience in governance, regulation and investment, and is Chair of Social Investment Scotland. George previously chaired the Scottish Housing Regulator and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, and has held senior NED roles with NHS Lothian.
Earlier in his career, he worked with Standard Life Investments and Friends Ivory & Sime in senior pensions and investment roles, including extensive experience across Asia and the United States.
Based in Edinburgh, George is passionate about strong public service governance and supporting organisations that deliver real social impact.
Ben Gunnee - Executive Director
Biography – Ben Gunnee
Ben joined TPR in February as interim Executive Director, Market Oversight, before being made permanent following a recruitment exercise. Ben has held senior leadership roles at Mercer, Cambridge Associates and Gresham House, where he led international expansion initiatives, delivered significant assets under management growth, and launched new services, products and fiduciary solutions. He brings a combination of strategic insight, product expertise, and has extensive experience working closely with investment teams, trustee boards and other stakeholders to help deliver on their objectives. As well as being a qualified actuary Ben has previously worked in pensions regulation for the Pensions Investment Authority (now the Financial Conduct Authority) on the Personal Pension review.
Richard Knox - Executive Director
Biography – Richard Knox
Richard brings over two decades of experience in financial services regulation and public policy. At HM Treasury, he served as Co-Director of the Financial Services Group, where he oversaw international financial services policy, Brexit negotiations, global trade agreements, and regulatory frameworks for capital markets, environmental, social and governance finance, and prudential banking.
Previously, Richard led EU negotiations on major legislative files such as European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) and Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) as Deputy Director for Securities and Markets. During the financial crisis, Richard contributed to the Asset Protection Scheme for RBS, as well as the Comprehensive Spending Review early in his career.
Most recently, Richard directed the multi-agency team that delivered the Pensions Investment Review following the 2024 election, collaborating across TPR, Department for Work and Pensions, Financial Conduct Authority, and the Bank of England. The Review’s recommendations formed the backbone of the Pension Schemes Bill which seeks to make sure the pension system both boosts member outcomes but also drives growth in the UK economy.
Paul Neville - Executive Director
Biography – Paul Neville
Paul joined TPR in October 2023 and is Executive Director of Digital, Data and Technology. His team uses modern technology, digital and data approaches to be a catalyst for pensions innovation and regulatory effectiveness, making it more efficient, secure, transparent, and customer centred.
Paul has extensive experience in digital, technology and business change across commercial and not-for-profit sectors. His early career was in the commercial sector, for example delivering large technology and operational change programmes in BT and transforming Sky’s eCommerce platform using agile and user-centred approaches.
More recently, Paul worked in the not-for-profit sector, firstly modernising national charities and then mostly in local government, delivering sector leading innovation. Paul was one of the founders of the London Office of Technology & Innovation, has featured regularly in digital industry publications and has been recognised for his work via the CIO 100 list.
In his spare time, Paul is a trustee of the charity Electrical Safety First and represents the charity as a Non-Executive Director on the board of their business Certsure which operates UK’s main electrical safety standard and qualification NICEIC.
Gaucho Rasmussen - Executive Director and Executive General Counsel
Biography – Gaucho Rasmussen
Gaucho joined TPR in October 2024 as Executive Director of Regulatory Compliance. He became Executive Director for Enforcement and Legal Group and Executive General Counsel in March 2026.
Gaucho is an established regulatory and enforcement leader with extensive experience from across private legal practice, in-house, regulators and the EU judiciary. Gaucho joins us from Amazon where he has been legal director and associate general counsel, advising on regulatory compliance issues across Europe. Before his role at Amazon, Gaucho headed up Ofcom's enforcement function from 2016 until 2022, delivering robust, effective and timely enforcement outcomes across a wide and strategic portfolio of responsibilities.
While at Ofcom, Gaucho was an effective driver of organisational change and development, establishing new organisational functions from scratch or reforming existing functions to ensure they met current and future organisational strategic needs. This built on his time as Enforcement Director at the Competition and Markets Authority, and Senior Legal and Policy Advisor at the Bank of England where he was the senior decision-maker across a broad range of regulatory issues.
Andrew Baigent - Chief Operating Officer
Biography – Andrew Baigent
Andrew joined TPR as our Chief Operating Officer in June 2024.
As COO, Andrew works across TPR to support the Chief Executive in delivering our objectives and ensuring we remain coherent and consistent as an organisation, with a focus on efficiency and effectiveness. The role includes leadership of our corporate functions that enable front-line delivery and provide assurance over the work we do.
He brings a wealth of government senior leadership experience to this role. Andrew has previously served as the Chief Financial Officer of HM Courts and Tribunal Service and Finance Director of the Department of Health and Social Care.
Andrew is a chartered accountant and has worked in senior leadership in organisations. Across his career, he has specialised in leading major digital change programmes and running corporate headquarters functions.
Andrew previously served as the director of Genomics England Limited during the period the company sequenced the first 100,000 genomes in the UK. He is also a former board member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.