Warwick-Thompson to leave LGPS Central pool

Andrew Warwick-Thompson is to step down from his role as chief executive of the LGPS Central pool.

Warwick-Thompson joined the pool, made up of nine LGPS funds with a combined £44bn of assets – in July last year after serving as executive director for regulatory policy.

In a statement, LGPS Central chair Joanne Segars praised Warwick-Thompson for his leadership during the launch phase of the pool.

She said: ”His contribution means that today the company is a fully functioning fund manager responsible for the management and stewardship of nearly £14bn (€15.7bn) of LGPS assets,”

“In addition, he has recruited a talented team of professionals to the company’s senior leadership team.

“As the company now enters its post-launch, business as usual, phase, Andrew feels the time is right for someone else to take the helm.”

Warwick-Thompson will leave the organisation by the Spring of 2019, giving the organisation a long lead-in time to find a replacement.

Upon launch in April, LGPS Central launched three pooled sub-funds – a global equity passive fund, a UK equity passive fund, a global dividend growth factor equity fund.

In addition, the pool took responsibility for eight advisory and discretionary mandates on behalf of its partner funds.

Room151 understands that development priorities for the remainder of 2018/19 are likely to focus on four externally-run active sub-fund launches covering global equity, emerging markets equity, corporate bonds and UK equity.

At the same time, the pool will be investigating the best vehicle for providing pooled private equity & infrastructure investment offers.

Documents from the last meeting of the last LGPS Central joint committee meeting said: “A review of the demand for an internally managed global equity active product is also planned, together with the development of an internally managed factor-based investment product that would meet growing partner fund interest in the use of factors to enhance passive investment returns.

The pool includes the LGPS funds of Cheshire, Leicestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Worcestershire, and the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority.

In its original bid for pool status, LGPS Central said that it hoped to achieve annual savings on fees of £29m.

In August, the pool signed an undertaking to agree to comply with the terms of the LGPS Scheme Advisory Board Investment Code of Transparency.