UK consultant JLT Employee Benefits has hired Nick Buckland from Dorset County Council’s pension fund to strengthen its services for local government pension schemes (LGPS).
Buckland will join the consultant in September. JLT has yet to confirm his job title, but he will work alongside Andrien Meyers, another former LGPS manager. Meyers is spearheading the firm’s new venture with specialist asset management consultant Alpha FMC focused on investment pooling.
Buckland has worked at the £2.3 billion ($3 billion) fund for 10 years, leadings its investment functions for five years. In total, he has spent 25 years at the council.
While in charge of the Dorset pension, Buckland has restructured its governance processes and implemented an inflation-hedging program.
In the past 12 months, Buckland has been working with nine other LGPS funds based in southern England to establish the “Brunel” investment pool. Once fully operational—currently scheduled for 2018—the pool will be responsible for more than £23 billion of assets.
JLT and Alpha FMC, a specialist asset management consultancy, are in talks with several LGPS pools to provide a range of services to get each collaboration up and running.
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