Stuart Southall

Chairman

Role

Stuart acts as independent chairman to a large hybrid scheme and is pro bono chair of three other schemes.

Background & experience

Stuart trained at Duncan C Fraser & Co before its acquisition by Mercer. In 1988, he established Punter Southall with Jonathan Punter. This was the most successful start-up in the actuarial consultancy market for over 30 years.

Stuart has worked with pension schemes varying in size from £15 million to £4.6 billion. Having worked in the roles of trustee, scheme actuary and sponsor adviser, he is able to balance perspectives between the fiduciary responsibilities of trustees and duties owed to scheme sponsors. He has extensive knowledge of mergers and reconstructions of large schemes, of liability management exercises and has been involved in buy-ins and buy-outs.

Stuart also has experience of a situation where an overseas parent company filed for Chapter 11 protection with implications for a UK pension scheme.

During his career, Stuart has attended well in excess of 1,100 trustees’ meetings. He is fully conversant with the legislative, regulatory and good governance requirements of UK pensions and he has the ability to appreciate and balance the duties and concerns of all parties to such schemes.

Having grown a business from only 9 people to over 1,200 staff, Stuart has demonstrable entrepreneurial attributes and an ability to interact with and motivate a wide range of people. These skills are invaluable to running a financially efficient and operationally effective pension scheme.

Stuart was an early editor of ‘The Actuary’, has sat on the Ethics Committee of ACA, and has served as its Chairman. He is a regular speaker at client events and outside conferences and is an accredited mediator. He was a non-executive director of Neptune Investment Management Limited until its sale to Liontrust and he is a CEDR qualified mediator. For over a decade he was a governor of two independent schools and a pro bono trustee of an educational trust.

Qualifications: Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, MA Hons Mathematics, accredited professional trustee

Interview with Stuart Southall

Areas of specialism

• chairing board meetings
• risk management
• actuarial issues
• funding & investment
• corporate transactions