Kieran Quinn appointed as chair of LAPFF

The LAPFF AGM was last week. "Councillor Kieran Quinn, chair of Greater Manchester Pension Fund, has been appointed as chair of Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) at its annual general meeting this week.

Councillor Quinn takes over from Ian Greenwood, chair of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund, who has led LAPFF since January 2008. Councillor Cameron Rose, representing Lothian Pension Fund, and Ian Greenwood have been appointed vice-chairs of LAPFF.
In addition there are two new members of the Forum’s executive – councillor John Gray representing the London Borough of Newham pension fund, and councillor Patricia Glasman, chair of Merseyside Pension Fund.

Incoming LAPFF chair, Kieran Quinn, said: “I am very pleased to be taking over as chair of the Forum at this exciting time. Over the last few years LAPFF has grown rapidly in both membership and influence. Our work on issues such as accounting standards and remuneration reform has broken new ground, and engagements at companies such as M&S and News Corp have given us a much higher profile.”

“I would also like to pay tribute to Ian’s leadership over the past five years, during which time the Forum has made enormous strides forward. I hope I can build on Ian’s record and cement LAPFF’s position as the UK’s leading shareholder body.”

Ian Greenwood said: “Having decided to stand down as chair at this AGM, I am extremely pleased to see my friend and colleague Kieran Quinn elected. I am certain he will provide the leadership needed to take LAPFF forward. I look forward to working with him in my position as vice-chair.”

LAPFF Conference 2011: The Continuing Crisis

Another early start on Thursday to get to the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) 16th annual conference in Bournemouth from East London for 9am. LAPFF “exists to promote the investment interests of local authority pension funds, and to maximise their influence as shareholders whilst promoting social responsibility and corporate governance at the companies in which they invest....Formed in 1990....combined assets of over £100 billion”.

It is of course quite ironic that this conference took place less than 24 hours after I had been on a (number of) picket lines in the biggest industrial dispute since 1926 over pensions.

Both of the local government pensions schemes I have an “interest” in are members of LAPFF. This year for the first time I was at the conference as a Councillor rather than as a Staff side representative. Which caused some confusion. I’ll try and post on as many of the excellent presentations and debates as possible. If you are a member of a local authority pension committee or panel in any capacity (and any Party or Union) then this is the conference to come to. It is politically non-partisan which in this context I think is very much a good thing.

Tom Watson MP was to be the opening speaker but his mum has fallen ill so he has had to send his apologies. The Chair of LAPFF Cllr Ian Greenwood and PIRC Tom Powdrill instead did a presentation on “The Hacking Scandal: Lessons for Investors”.  

LAPFF have been trying to remove James Murdock (son of Rupert) as Chair of BSkyB not so much with regard to the appalling behaviour of News of the World reporters etc but concern about his independence and the reputational risk to our investments and what this is doing to shareholder value. For example will OFCOM still consider NewsCorp to be a fit and proper shareholder of BSkyB? If they don’t - what impact will this have to Pension fund investments in BSkyB?

LAPFF Conference 2010 - Stewardship: New Strategies for Corporate Governance.

The Local Authority Pension Fund Forum (LAPFF) is an association of 52 UK based public sector pension funds who manage over £90 billion of assets.

LAPFF exists firstly to protect local authority pension investments. It also uses members shareholdings to promote corporate social responsibility and corporate governance in the companies that we part own. LAPFF hold an annual conference in Bournemouth every year.

There were over 150 Councillors, pension fund officers and the investment fund industry representatives registered. I was there with other LGPS trade union reps. I last came 4 years when I took part in a panel debate on governance.

Despite the heavy snowfall most delegates and speakers were able to get here in time. I’ll try and post on some of the highlights and things that I thought interesting. Please note the usual disclaimer about the literal accuracy of all my hurried note taking.

Chair of LAPFF Ian Greenwood (Leader of Bradford Council) started the conference with an Actuary joke (specialist financial advisers to pension funds). An Actuary dies and goes to heaven. At the pearly gates St Peter asks the Actuary what he had done in his 127 years on earth to justify going to heaven? The Actuary replies he is only 84 years old not 127? St Peter replies “No, you must be 127 I have seen the hours you have charged” (Well, I thought it was funny).

I’ll post on the speakers and debates later.