91Èȱ¬

About the trustees

The Trustee of the Scheme is a company, 91Èȱ¬ Pension Trust Ltd. This is a wholly owned subsidiary of the 91Èȱ¬ and exists only for the purpose of acting as sole corporate trustee of the Scheme.

The Trustee company acts through its Board of Directors. The directors are referred to as ‘the Trustee Directors’ and the Board of Directors as ‘the Trustee Board’. There are eleven Trustee Directors:

• four are appointed by the 91Èȱ¬;
• four are appointed by Scheme members. Three of these are elected by the active members and those deferred members employed by participating employers. One is elected by the pensioners. All four serve for six years;
• three are independent Trustee Directors, appointed by other Trustee Directors with the agreement of the 91Èȱ¬ Board.

There is a more detailed Governance Statement available here.

The Trustee is responsible for stewardship of the Scheme’s assets. Its main objective is to ensure that all beneficiaries receive the benefits to which they are entitled under the Trust Deed and Rules.

Find out who the Trustees are and read their biographies below.

The fund

Pension contributions are paid into a trust fund and invested by the Trustee to produce income from which benefits are paid. The Fund is separate from the finances of the 91Èȱ¬ and participating employers. It is used to provide benefits for the Scheme’s members and their dependants.

The Scheme is registered for tax purposes with HM Revenue & Customs.

Trust Deed and Rules 

The Trustees administer the Scheme and pay benefits in accordance with the Trust Deed and Rules. You can get a copy from the documents page.

Annual Report

Copies are available from the documents page.

Where can I get help?

You can find lots of help and advice in our help section.

Trustee Biographies

Catherine Claydon

Catherine is a Non-Executive Director of the new British Steel Pension Scheme. Previous appointments have included Deputy Chair of the BT Pension Scheme Trustees Limited, independent member of the Unilever UK Pension Fund Investment Committee and Non Executive Directorships at Barclays UK Retirement Fund (Chair of Investment Advisory Group), Dunedin Income Growth Investment Trust (Senior Independent Director), the London Metal Exchange Limited, Hermes Fund Managers Ltd and the Witan Investment Trust (Chairman Remuneration Committee).

Catherine Claydon’s professional background includes more than 20 years’ experience in investment banking in the UK, with 15 years spent at Goldman Sachs, latterly as a Managing Director in the Pension Advisory Group. Her background included multi-asset class derivatives and commodities, where she was the Managing Director responsible for the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index.

Catherine is a PMI accredited professional Trustee.

Ben Cryer

Ben Cryer is a Principal Technical Operator working for News and regional TV in Leeds. He started his career at the 91Èȱ¬ in 2000 as a Radio and TV Journalist but switched to camerawork and editing documentaries. In that time, he's filmed in several countries including Kosovo, Argentina, and across Europe and covered major news and sporting events. Ben is also a Trade Union representative for BECTU and sits on the National Joint Council negotiating with the 91Èȱ¬ at a national level. He also sits on the Governance committee for the 91Èȱ¬ Lifeplan pension.

Emma Osborne

Emma Osborne has a number of non-executive and trustee roles, including as a trustee at the People’s Pension master trust and the Church of England pension schemes. Her previous executive role was mainly in institutional investment management and included being head of quantitative investment management and derivatives at Credit Suisse Asset Management and Chief Investment Officer for the international assets of the Chubb Corporation, a US insurance company, where she was also chair of the UK company’s pension scheme.

Leslie Huss-Smickler

Leslie has been working in the pensions industry for most of his working life; 16 years of which were with the 91Èȱ¬. He was formerly the 91Èȱ¬ Pensions Manager and left in 1994 to become the Pensions Policy Manager at BT where he stayed until 2010. He subsequently joined Wealth at work as Head of Retirement Services and retired in 2020.

He is a member of the 91Èȱ¬ Pensioners Association and is on its governing committee.

Leslie qualified as a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute (FCII) and a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute (FPMI).

Martyn Freeman

As Chief Operating Officer of 91Èȱ¬ Studios, Martyn is responsible for overseeing the company’s legal and business affairs, global operations, compliance and risk, in addition to technology, transformation and property.

Appointed Chief Operating Officer in December 2021, Martyn was previously General Counsel for 91Èȱ¬ Studios, having held the role for 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide since 2011. Prior to this he led 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide's Legal and Business Affairs teams, as Group Head and then Director. Martyn has also worked in a variety of roles across the 91Èȱ¬, including as Head of Business Affairs, Radio & Music, Factual & Learning and News.

David Jordan

David is the 91Èȱ¬â€™s Director, Editorial Policy & Standards. He is responsible for compiling the 91Èȱ¬â€™s Editorial Guidelines and manages the editorial policy team as well as the 91Èȱ¬â€™s complaints system and the Pronunciation Unit. David joined the 91Èȱ¬ in 1988 to work on political and current affairs programmes for television and radio and edited On The Record, Panorama, The Westminster Hour and The Week in Westminster.  He has also been the 91Èȱ¬â€™s Chief Adviser, Politics.   

David is Secretart General of Public Broadcasters’ International, the Executive Board of the Organisation of News Ombudsmen.

Eileen Haughey

Eileen has had a varied career in corporate finance, tax and consulting. Highlights include Head of Corporate Finance at Marks & Spencer and partnerships at Andersen and subsequently Deloitte. She has an extensive pensions background, having been CEO of the BT Pension Scheme and previously CEO of the ICI Pension Schemes.

Eileen is Chair of the Barclays UK Retirement fund. She is a PMI accredited professional Trustee. 

Peter Johnston

Peter Johnston was appointed Director Editorial Complaints and Reviews in April 2023, following on from his role in leading the implementation of the Serota Review/DG Impartiality plan. Prior to that he had been Director of 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland since 2006 with overall editorial and managerial responsibility for the 91Èȱ¬ in Northern Ireland. Peter joined 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland in 1994 working in audience research and has held roles as Head of Marketing and Development, Head of New Media for 91Èȱ¬ Nations and Regions, and Head of Broadcasting.

Peter sat on the 91Èȱ¬ Nations Board and on the 91Èȱ¬ Northern Ireland Committee, which is responsible for advising the 91Èȱ¬ Board on the 91Èȱ¬â€™s performance and services for audiences in Northern Ireland, and for overseeing the public engagement strategy. He also sat on the 91Èȱ¬â€™s Digital Leadership Group representing the Nations Division and attends the Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee of the 91Èȱ¬ Board.

Kristina Block

Kristina Block is the Commissioning Editor for World News Content and a deputy to the 91Èȱ¬â€™s Foreign Editor. She is responsible for commissioning high impact, original content from 91Èȱ¬ News teams around the world as well as planning news coverage and deployments on international stories. She started her 91Èȱ¬ career in global business programmes, oversaw the planning for the Rio Olympics as well as other major events, before leading the planning teams for 91Èȱ¬ World News and World Service Radio. Prior to joining the 91Èȱ¬ in 2006 Kristina was a business correspondent and news editor for international news channel DW-TV in her native Germany.

Shirley Cameron

Shirley Cameron is a Chartered Accountant and Treasurer and is currently Director of Revenue and Customer Management at the British Broadcasting Corporation where she leads the 91Èȱ¬â€™s Licence Fee Collection activities.

In a 28 year career at the 91Èȱ¬, Shirley has held a wide range of finance, project and management roles across all divisions of the organisation including 7 years as 91Èȱ¬ Group Financial Controller.

She completed her Chartered Accountancy training with KPMG in London before a secondment to the firm’s Melbourne office. Her professional experience covers financial accounting, treasury, audit, tax, mergers & acquisitions and corporate governance.

Shirley is Deputy Chair of the Board of Governors at the University of West London, a Trustee of 91Èȱ¬ Media Action and Honorary Treasurer of the Hansard Society.

Hannah Sander

Hannah Sander is a Commissioning Executive at Radio 4, overseeing Factual programmes on topics including economics, history and current affairs. For two years she sat on multiple 91Èȱ¬ senior leadership committees preparing large-scale plans for the 91Èȱ¬â€™s WWI Centenary. She spent over a decade in production at 91Èȱ¬ Audio, producing programmes for Radio 3, Radio 4 and the World Service.