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Michelle Ostermann has been appointed as the new chief executive of the Pension Protection Fund, succeeding Oliver Morley. She will start her new role on 1 April. Katherine Easter, currently the public body’s chief people officer, is the interim CEO until April.
Ostermann is currently the chair of the International Centre for Pension Management. She has more than 30 years of pension investment and senior leadership experience. Some of her roles were managing director of Railpen Investments and most recently, senior vice president and global head of capital markets at PSP Investments in Canada.
Kate Jones, who chairs the £32.5bn lifeboat fund, welcomed Ostermann saying: “Her member centric approach and fiduciary experience will certainly help us to continue to play a pivotal role in safeguarding the futures of those who rely on us, while also delivering for our levy payers and other key stakeholders.”
She said Ostermann’s knowledge and transformative approach “will be invaluable as we continue to explore the possible expansion of our remit in support of the government’s economic plans for the UK”.
Osterman said: "In a pensions industry rife with challenges and opportunities, I firmly believe the PPF is poised to play a critical role in defining best practices and reshaping the UK pensions landscape – a prospect I eagerly anticipate diving into.”
The government aims to expand the PPF’s remit so that it can act as a consolidator for DB schemes whose sponsor is still solvent, severing the connection to the companies. This could potentially provide a solution for schemes that are unattractive for commercial consolidators, while the government also sees an opportunity to pursue its productive finance agenda through a public body.
The PPF has reassured levy payers that any consolidator it runs would be a separate arrangement, with the original lifeboat fund being ringfenced. Critics have, however, also voiced concerns over the use of taxpayer money to run and support DB schemes of solvent companies.
The PPF’s outgoing chief executive Morley will join the Money and Pensions Service as CEO on 1 February.
What should be top of the priority list for the PPF’s new CEO?
