Capital Cranfield has achieved gender parity amongst its lead professional trustees with its latest two appointments.
The firm has appointed Anthea Whitton and Kate Grant to be professional trustees with the firm, with both appointments effective from the start of September.
Whitton (pictured below) joins from Eversheds where she was a partner leading their pensions team in Leeds. She has 25 years’ experience advising pension schemes and their sponsors with earlier career roles at Squire Patton Boggs and Pinsent Masons. Her experience is wide ranging, covering schemes from £50m to £30bn across DB. DC and public sector arrangements. She brings particular knowledge of risk transfer, winding up and buyout, the operation of master trusts and pension scheme disputes. 
Capital Cranfield says Grant, (pictured below) who is based in the South East, brings strong all-round leadership and operational experience from her background in pensions management, benefits and reward. She joins from Vodafone, where she was head of pensions & benefits and remains a trustee of their large DB scheme and chair of their DC oversight committee. She was previously group reward director at Rexam and held earlier pensions manager roles at Britvic Soft Drinks and AECOM. 
Capital Cranfield managing director Harus Rai says: “Both are exceptional appointments who will fit in well with our existing team. Their diverse professional backgrounds and locations neatly sum up the differing requirements that prospective clients have.
“It is worth noting that these appointments mean that we now have exact male / female parity among our lead professional trustees. This is a significant milestone, although not one we have explicitly worked towards, simply looking to appoint the best professional trustees to meet client requirements. It is, however, a good indicator of our culture.