What’s your current role – and what does it involve?
I am an investment consultant at Quantum Advisory. To summarise my role in one sentence, I help institutional investors set and achieve their investment goals.
This involves advising on investment strategies, manager and fund selection, implementation and monitoring. As an ESG specialist, I lead the ESG investment research sub-team and chair the ESG investment committee. I’m also a member of the firmwide DC strategy group and sit on the transition management team.
What’s the best and worst thing about your job?
I love knowing that the work we do goes some way to helping people enjoy a decent retirement. I also like seeing plans come together, investment goals being met and knowing that I contributed in some way.
The worst thing about my job is the fact that it’s an indoor, desk-based job year-round. Don’t get me wrong, when the weather is horrible (like at the time of writing!), I’m thankful that I can work indoors with the heating on. But on those rare occasions we get decent weather in Wales, it would be great to be outside a little more.
What made you apply for a role in the pensions industry?
I began my career in an IFA practice, which was a really good experience. But I realised quite quickly that I was more interested in the investment management side of things and there was limited scope for this in that role. From the outside looking in, pension scheme investment advice looked like where the action was! I was attracted to the hands on nature of the work, where every pension scheme is different, with interesting and complex investment strategies that you won’t necessarily find in the retail space.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I really enjoy what I do, so more of the same but with greyer hair! Eventually, I’d like to be in a position where I’m leading teams and have more responsibilities.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
Recently I was on a holiday in Corfu, and I completely buckled the wheel of our car when I hit a pothole. Panicking at the thought of major repairs, I took the car back to the rental company’s garage. When I got there, I pointed at the wheel and asked if it could be fixed. To my surprise the local Greek mechanic smiled and said in a distinct Welsh accent “Everything can be fixed”. This is something I think about all the time now.
How can the pensions industry attract and engage more young people?
There tends to be two reactions when you mention pensions to people my age: confusion and scepticism, as most think retirement is too far away to worry about. We can change this. Embracing social media is one way. Granted, pensions can be boring compared to the funny videos we’re spoon-fed by the algorithm, but more has to be done by the industry to tap into the use of social media by young people.
And following the Welsh government’s footsteps, it’s good to see financial literacy will be a compulsory subject in schools in England by 2028 – this is a great idea.
What was your dream job when you were at school?
This changed every year I was at school.: WWE superstar, rugby player, football player, YouTuber, bank manager (what was I thinking?), engineer and many many more…
