Charlie Thomas has written about occupational and retail pensions and investments for the past four years. Her current role sees her produce in-depth reports for her trustee audience, distributed primarily with Pensions Week magazine.

She has chaired conferences to trustee and employer audiences and organises an annual charity battle of the bands the pensions industry called Pensions Rocks! Prior to her current role, she was Executive Editor of Pensions Management magazine and Deputy Editor of Pensions Week.

Charlie has also written about the insurance industry, fund management and macro-economic issues, and has been featured in The Independent, The Times and the Financial Times. She is also the current holder of Headlinemoney's Trade Journalist of the Year award.


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Geoffrey Spence is currently the Chief Executive of Infrastructure UK, the part of HM Treasury responsible for infrastructure industries in the UK. He is also the Senior Corporate Finance Practitioner in HM Treasury.

Previously, Geoffrey worked in investment banking for 24 years, specialising in financing the utilities, energy and infrastructure industries, working for Morgan Grenfell & Co Ltd, Deutsche Bank AG and HSBC Bank plc.

In addition, Geoffrey has been a long-standing adviser to the UK government, with two terms of five years in total working for HM Treasury. As a member of the Council of Economic Advisers, he was personal adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on financial stability issues and business policy more broadly during the credit crisis of 2008-10, and from 2002-04 he was Head of PFI Policy and created the Private Finance Unit at HM Treasury, on secondment from Deutsche Bank.

Geoffrey was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and Campbell College, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Presentation: Future for Infrastructure

The government has made clear that investment in all types of infrastructure is essential to helping our economy grow and in meeting the increasing demands on the UK's energy, transport and communication networks. Infrastructure assets are seen as an ideal match for pension fund investors, helping with liability-matching, offering low correlations with other asset classes and presenting an opportunity for socially responsible investment amongst other favourable reasons. What are the government and regulators doing to incentivise institutional investors?

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Joanne Segars became CEO of the NAPF in 2006, having joined the organisation in 2005 as Director of Policy. She was Head of Pensions and Savings at the ABI from 2001 to 2005. Joanne held the pensions brief at the TUC for 13 years and started her career in pensions as a researcher and journalist for Incomes Data Services.

Joanne has a degree in economics from John Moores University, Liverpool, and a Master of Arts degree in industrial relations from the University of Warwick.

Joanne is a founding governor and council member of the Pensions Policy Institute. She is also a Director of TUC Stakeholder Trustees Ltd. From 1996 to 2003, Joanne was an Opra board member. In 2007 she was elected as a Director of the European Federation for Retirement Provision.

Joanne was awarded an OBE for services to the pensions industry in the 2003 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Presentation: Harnessing pension funds as a source of investment for infrastructure

Infrastructure has the potential to deliver the sustainable, secure and strong returns that institutional investors are looking for. The primary market involves procuring, building and delivering an asset, which is the start-up phase of an infrastructure project. The secondary market refers to the operational phase of an asset. Each market has pros and cons that can best suit growth-style or income-style investors. Outlining some of the opportunities to harness pension funds through direct or indirect investments, diversification across sectors and equity and debt finance.

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Fiona Stewart works for the OECD's Financial Affairs Division. She provides secretariat support for the organisation's Working Party on Private Pensions, a group that brings together policymakers and other relevant parties from 34 member countries. She also works with the International Organisation of Pension Supervisors, an international body dedicated to cooperation and research on pension supervisory issues. Prior to working at the OECD, Fiona worked in the investment industry for 10 years. As head of American Express Asset Management in Japan she was responsible for investing $2bn in Asian equity markets and, as part of an international team, for managing $20bn globally. She holds degrees from Oxford and Johns Hopkins Universities and a Chartered Financial Analyst qualification. She also sits on the advisory board for one of the OECD's own pension funds.

Presentation: Understanding the risks

It is essential to have a clear understanding of the key risks around infrastructure projects and companies. Construction costs may see budgets spiral higher than planned or assets may become poorly managed once completed. There are also issues to consider around governance, liquidity, pricing, reputational risk and the operational challenge.

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Rory Quinlan is a Managing Director on the Clean Energy and Infrastructure team in Investment Management at Capital Dynamics. He has 17 years of public, private and government-owned company experience in managing, operating, investing in and financing assets and businesses in the conventional and alternate energy industries, including both 'greenfield' and 'brownfield' project developments in clean energy.

Prior to joining Capital Dynamics, Rory was the Chief Financial Officer at Novera Energy plc, where he was responsible for all financing activities, including capital raisings (equity and debt markets), investment origination, negotiation and completion. Rory holds a Bachelor's degree in Business and Accounting and a Master's degree in Commerce from Queensland University of Technology. He also holds the professional designation of Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA) Australia.


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Jim Bligh heads the labour market and pensions policy team. The team lobbies for more effective labour markets, covering policy issues including labour market, unemployment, pensions, skills, welfare reform, business responsibility, human rights and anti-bribery. Jim leads the CBI's 'Getting the UK working' and 'Infrastructure investment' projects. Jim joined the CBI in 2007, having worked for a parliamentary candidate since graduating with an MPhil in Renaissance Literature from Cambridge. Jim has a first class degree in English from Durham, where he was president of the union.

Presentation: An offer they shouldn't refuse: attracting private investment to infrastructure – the business perspective

At a time when the public sector can no longer foot the bill for most of the £250bn investment we need in our infrastructure, the private sector – and pension funds in particular – have a key role to play, but what more can government and investors do to kick-start the market? What is the marriage of interests between pension funds and infrastructure investments?

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Jamie Perrett is responsible for the research and development of all indices in Asia Pacific.

As Director of Index Research, his role involves working closely with FTSE's partners and key clients, including exchanges, major asset owners, fund managers and investment banks in the creation of new index products. This involves the use of fundamental and quantitative techniques to design and provide index solutions and analysis, therefore supporting the use of indices in investment portfolios and strategies across all asset classes.

Since joining FTSE Group in 2000, Jamie has been involved in the design of various indices and after a series of promotions was appointed as the Head of Index Design in 2006. Throughout his career, he has closely worked with many of FTSE's partners and key clients to develop and broaden FTSE's index offering. One of his first roles was working on the creation of the FTSE Xinhua Index Series and in particular the creation of the FTSE Xinhua China 25 Index. Since then, Jamie has also been involved in the creation of many of FTSE's successful index offerings including the development of after-tax indices as part of the FTSE ASFA Australia Index Series, the FTSE EPRA NAREIT Index Series, the FTSE RAFI Index Series, as well the design enhancements to the Straits Times Index in Singapore, to name a few.

Jamie is currently based in Hong Kong where he and his team support FTSE's clients in Asia Pacific.

Presentation: Outlining the type of infrastructure investment

The diversity of infrastructure assets and projects allows for a variety of investment types with a changing mix of equity, private equity, bond elements and real estate often involved. Which type of investment gives more direct ownership and control and which assets bring a steady, inflation-linked income stream?

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