Border to Coast appoints interim CIO

The Border to Coast LGPS pool has announced a raft of appointments including John Harrison as interim chief investment officer.

Harrison, a frequent commentator on LGPS issues for Room151, joins the pool after recently acting as independent adviser to Surrey Pension Fund, and will report to chief executive Rachel Elwell.

His role will involve setting up the pool’s investment function and overseeing the transition of assets into Border to Coast from the 12 partner LGPS funds.

Elwell said: “Setting up Border to Coast’s investments requires a very special mix of expertise in both investment management and local authority pensions and I am absolutely delighted that John has agreed to step away from his advisory work for a period to help us with this.”

Harrison’s appointment as interim gives the pool more breathing space to find a permanent CIO “in due course”, she said.

Harrison has worked in investment management roles including as UK CIO responsible for UBS’ UK institutional business and managing director, institutional advisory at Allenbridge.

Writing for Room151 in July last year, he said that the biggest hidden risk to the pooling process was transition of funds to the new body.

He said: “Given the scale of the assets involved and the uncertainty of market conditions at any point in time, a mistimed or mishandled transition could impose transaction costs that dwarf the pool’s estimated set-up costs.

“The management of this risk has to include the option for the transition to be deferred in adverse market conditions and access to the skills needed to judge whether this should apply.”

Speaking this week after his appointment, Harrison described the pooling process in the LGPS as “one of the most significant changes in the UK investment management industry in a generation”.

Border to Coast also confirmed the appointment of Mark Lyon as head of equities and alternatives, reporting to Harrison.

Lyons moves from his role as head of investments at East Riding Pension Fund, where he has led an internally investment team managing £4.5bn of assets.

He has been a major driver in the Border to Coast project team over the last two years, along with Fiona Miller, now chief operating officer of the pool, and Phil Triggs, strategic finance manager, pensions and treasury, at Surrey.

Manda McConnell, a risk professional with 20 years’ experience working in banks, insurance and asset management firms, also joins Border to Coast as chief risk officer.

Her priority will be to help establish a strong risk framework supporting the pool’s application for regulatory approval from the Financial Conduct Authority.

Border to Coast will invest £43bn of combined assets from the Bedfordshire, Cumbria, Durham, East Riding, Lincolnshire, Northumberland, North Yorkshire, Surrey, South Yorkshire, Teesside, Tyne and Wear and Warwickshire LGPS pension funds.

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